2. That a child born nine months after lawful wedlock is illegitimate. 3. That, in the absence of eye-witnesses, a newly-born dead child was live-born. 4. That in a common disaster a certain person must have died last. 5. That children under seven can commit an indictable offence. =2. IMPOSED BY INADEQUACY AND UNCERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE.= 1. The presence of gonorrhœa cannot be established by microscopical evidence. 2. A small mammalian blood-stain cannot be sworn to be “human.” 3. In a case of sudden death you cannot state whether a bruise was inflicted immediately before or immediately after the death. 4. The sex of a very old or a very young skeleton cannot be determined. 5. The age of a skeleton, after complete ossification, is guess-work. 6. Death cannot be affirmed until putrefaction sets in. 7. Pregnancy must not be asserted until quickening has been felt, or the fœtal parts are palpable. 8. Affiliation to putative parent from personal resemblance is insufficient. =3. CASES WHERE A POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION IS NECESSARY TO TEST.= 1. _Alleged Drowning_: otherwise in the absence of eye-witnesses of the fatality, “found dead in the water” is the only logical conclusion. 2. _Alleged Overlaying_: otherwise “found dead in bed with the parents” should be the “open verdict.” In 1 and 2, cardio-respiratory diseases must be noted. 3. _Alleged Still-birth_: for although live-birth cannot thereby be proved in the absence of direct eye-witnesses, the lungs may have functioned. 4. Anatomical _post-mortem_ examinations should be performed wherever possible in medico-legal cases; they are essential in alleged criminal homicide. IV. VITAL ACTIVITIES WHICH MAY HAVE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED SUDDEN DEATH, 1. _Respiration_: Soot or froth may be in the mouth, trachea, or nostrils. 2. _Deglutition and Peristalsis_: Local water or blood may have been swallowed; food may be in the stomach (e.g., of the newly-born); vomit or fæces may have been voided; salivation may have been profuse. 3. _Blood-Circulation_: Much blood may have been lost, possibly having “spurted” (e.g., in the newly-born); the heart and vessels may be empty; there may be true extravasation into or hyperæmia of the tissues (a microscope will reveal reaction to an irritant); the veins may be swollen on the distal side of a ligature; the blood may give spectroscopic tests for poisonings. 4. _Neuromuscular_: Articles may be clutched e.g., weapons, grass (“a drowning man catches at a straw”), hair, mud; _cutis anserina_ may be present; _emissio seminis_ or abortion may have occurred; the eyelids are usually open at death; children are usually born with the eyelids sealed. V. HEARSAY TESTIMONY: MEDICO-LEGAL EXCEPTIONS TO THE GENERAL RULE WHICH FORBIDS THE RECEPTION IN COURTS OF SUCH TESTIMONY.