In cases of alleged infanticide, the evidence of the forensic physician is of the highest importance, and as his opinion upon such an occasion must necessarily go far to influence the judgment, and direct the verdict of the jury, he should be fully prepared to appreciate the difficulties of the case, and to clear away the numerous fallacies, and popular prejudices with which the subject is embarrassed. To _Dr. William Hunter_, the profession and the public owe the deepest obligation, for the philosophical and humane manner in which he examined the general value of physiological testimony in proof of the commission of child-murder. Previous to this enlightened dissertation[65] it is to be greatly feared that many unfortunate women had fallen the innocent victims of false theory and prejudice. The objections, however, so forcibly urged by _Dr. Hunter_ against the validity of certain physiological tests, although well calculated to awaken inquiry, in order to divest such evidence of its fallacy, were not intended, as some have imagined, to discard physiological testimony altogether. With this conviction, we shall proceed to a critical examination of the various proofs which physiology has been supposed capable of affording, in support of an accusation of infanticide. The objects of this inquiry may be conveniently arranged under four divisions, viz. 1. _To ascertain whether the child was born alive?_ 2. _If born alive, whether its death was the result of natural causes; of wilful murder; or of negligence and abandonment?_ 3. _If its death arose from the want of due care, whether such negligence should be regarded as criminal or accidental?_ 4. _Whether the woman accused presents on examination, such appearances as correspond with her supposed relations to the child?_ Upon each of these heads we shall offer such observations as appear to us to be essential to ensure the safe judgment of the practitioner. Several of the questions, involved in the inquiry, have already engaged our attention in the first volume of the present work, under the history of conception; while the industry with which the numerous authorities on the subject of infanticide, and its scientific relations, have been lately collated by _Dr. Hutchinson_,[66] in England, and _Professor Capuron_, in France, will justify us in giving to this branch of our work the character of a commentary, rather than that of a regular history. On the discovery of the body of a newly-born infant, it becomes our first duty to ascertain whether the spark of life be entirely extinct; if the sensible proofs of absolute death should be absent, no time is to be lost in subjecting it to those means[67] which are best calculated to excite it to vigorous life, such as external warmth, frictions, inflation of the lungs, &c.