The principles of forensic medicine, systematically arranged and applied to British practice / By John Gordon Smith.

  • Smith, John Gordon, 1792-1833.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of forensic medicine, systematically arranged and applied to British practice / By John Gordon Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and healthiness the continuance of life depends. In many instances of this nature, however, the ver- dict specifically records the cause of death. _ Accidental death requires very little elucidation. it relates to death either from personal agency, or unforeseen exposure to external injury ; as when a man is driven over in the dark by a coach. If no culpability be attachable to the driver either for furious driving, or wilfully taking the wrong side of the road, it would be considered an accident, anda fine would be inflicted on the coach or horses: in like manner, if a person should fall into the water, and be drowned, notwithstanding attempts to save him, the verdict would, in all probability, be « accidentally drowned.” Died by the visitation of Ged is a common phrase, in which the verdict of a coroner’s jury is couched ; and is used, I believe, in those cases of sudden death, where no immediate or satisfactory cause is discovered, but where there is no ground for suspicion as to criminal interference. ‘There are some fatal diseases and derangements, which by ordinary inspection may not be discoverable, or which may bid defiance to very accurate and minute re- searches, referable to this description of cases. I might instance some affections of the heart, and perhaps certain disorders that attack the stomach, or supervene in the brain. It is no reproach upon the character of the deceased, although the term “ visitation of God” would seem to imply some- S