In the arrangement of the matter, the primary division into the three sciences of medical jurisprudence, forensic medicine, and toxicology has been adopted. The division of pure medical jurisprudence is contained in the present volume, while the legal aspects of neurology, obstetrics, etc., will be treated of in future volumes along with the subjects to which they relate. In the division of forensic medicine the classification of Casper has been followed: _i.e._, _Thanatological_; including those branches in which the subject of inquiry is a dead body (contained in the present volume). _Bio-thanatological_; relating to questions concerning both dead bodies and living persons (in the second volume). _Biological_; relating to living persons (in the second and third volumes). The applications of the microscope to forensic medicine will be treated of in the second volume. The fourth volume will contain the division relating to toxicology. R. A. W. MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. THE LEGAL RELATIONS OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, INCLUDING THEIR ACQUIREMENT OF THE RIGHT TO PRACTISE MEDICINE AND SURGERY; THEIR LEGAL DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS; THEIR RIGHT TO COMPENSATION; THEIR PRIVILEGES AND DUTIES WHEN SUMMONED AS WITNESSES IN COURTS OF JUSTICE, AND THEIR LIABILITY FOR MALPRACTICE. BY TRACY C. BECKER, A.B., LL.B., _Counsellor-at-Law; Professor of Criminal Law and Medical Jurisprudence in the Law Department of the University of Buffalo; Chairman Executive Committee New York State Bar Association, etc._ LEGAL STATUS OF PHYSICIANS. CHAPTER I. OF THE RIGHT TO PRACTISE MEDICINE AND SURGERY. LEGAL DEFINITION AND HISTORY OF THE TERMS PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON. AT common law the right to administer drugs or medicines or to perform surgical operations was free to all. And such was the rule of the Roman civil law. But the importance of prescribing certain educational qualifications for those who made such practices their means of gaining a livelihood soon became apparent, and as early as the year 1422, during the reign of Henry the Fifth in England, an act of Parliament was adopted forbidding any one, under a penalty of both fine and imprisonment, from “using the mysterie of fysyck unless he hath studied it in some university and is at least a batchellor of science.” As a result of this and other statutory regulations, a class of professional men grew up, who were called “physicians,” because they professed to have the qualifications required by such legal regulations to wisely prescribe drugs and medicines for the cure of diseases. A chirurgeon or surgeon—Latin, chirurgus; Greek, _χειρουργος_, compounded of _χειρ_, the hand, and _ἐργειν_, to work—as the derivation of the word shows, was one who professed to cure disease or injuries by manual treatment and appliances.