Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Science
Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1
Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Medical jurisprudence; Poisons; Toxicology
It is necessary in this place to make mention of one work by living
authors, as its appearance marked a new departure in medico-legal
literature, and as in it the fact that forensic medicine extends over
so wide a field of inquiry as to require treatment at the hands of
specialists was first recognized. To Josef von Maschka, professor in
the University of Prague, the credit is due of having been the first
to produce, with the collaboration of twenty-two colleagues, a truly
systematic work on modern forensic medicine.[96]
English works upon this subject did not exist prior to the present
century,[97] although physicians were employed by the courts to
determine medical questions of fact at a much earlier date. Paris and
Fonblanque, in the third Appendix of their “Medical Jurisprudence,”
give the text of reports by the Colleges of Physicians of London and
of Edinburgh concerning the cause of death as early as 1632 and 1687
respectively.[98]
Lectures on medical jurisprudence were given at the University of
Edinburgh by A. Duncan, Sr., at least as early as 1792.[99] The title
of Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in a British university was
conferred for the first time, however, upon A. Duncan, Jr., at the
University of Edinburgh in 1806.[100]
The first English work on medical jurisprudence worthy of consideration
is the medical classic known as Percival’s “Medical Ethics.” This
was first published in 1803, and contains in its fourth chapter an
admirable epitome of legal medicine.[101] A more elaborate work, based
very largely, however, upon the writings of continental authors,
was published by G. E. Male in 1816.[102] In 1821 Professor John
Gordon Smith published the first systematic treatise on forensic
medicine,[103] and was one of the first in Great Britain to show the
importance of the subject.
Two years later, in 1823, appeared the elaborate and scholarly work
of Dr. Paris and Mr. Fonblanque, the first in the English language
in whose authorship members of the medical and legal professions
were associated.[104] In 1831, Prof. Michael Ryan published the
first edition of his “Manual of Medical Jurisprudence” from the
memoranda of his lectures on the subject in the Westminster School of
Medicine.[105] A similar work was published by Professor T. S. Traill,
of the University of Edinburgh, in 1836.[106] The awakened interest in
medico-legal subjects among the medical profession during the decade
1830-40 is evidenced by the publication in the medical journals of
the lectures of A. Amos, in 1830-31; of A. T. Thomson, at the London
University, in 1834-35; of H. Graham, at Westminster Hospital, in
1835; of W. Cummin, at the Aldersgate Street School, in 1836-37; and
of T. Southwood Smith, at the Webb Street Theatre of Anatomy, in
1837-38.[107]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account