The fee for attendance at High Courts of Justiciary or the Sheriff Criminal Court is one guinea per day, if the Court be held in the town in which the medical witness lives. For a post-mortem examination and report, two guineas. For an analysis of blood or other stains on clothing, two to four guineas, depending upon the amount of work done. If the witness come from a distance, he is allowed two guineas per day, both for the actual attendance at Court and also for each day occupied in travelling to and fro, with a guinea a day for travelling expenses. CHAPTER II MEDICAL EVIDENCE GENERALLY On the subject of evidence it is necessary to say a few words, for it must be remembered that that which may be held to be evidence in logic may not be so in law. Nothing in law is intuitive--nothing is self-evident; everything must go through the process of proof by testimony. Legal evidence is therefore composed of testimony, but all testimony is not necessarily evidence in law. Thus, if a witness declare that he saw a certain act committed, his testimony may be accepted as evidence; but if he state that his knowledge of a fact is obtained from another person, such information, although it contain an absolutely true description of what actually occurred, will not be received. In this case his testimony is simply hearsay, and as such is not admissible, except in the case of dying declarations, and in one or two other instances which do not, however, concern us. Medical evidence may be divided under the following heads: (1) Documentary; (2) Oral or Parol; (3) Experimental. 1. DOCUMENTARY Under this head are included Medical Certificates, Written Opinions, Medical Reports, and Dying Declarations. =Medical Certificates.=--Certificates generally refer to death, to vaccination, to notification of infectious and industrial diseases, and in districts which have adopted it, the notification of births; to the state of health of an individual, &c. For those which have respect to the health or to the illness of an individual there is no particular legal form, as a certificate is merely a simple statement of a fact. The only essential condition is that it contains the exact truth, and any departure from this will entail heavy penalties. A statement signed by a registered medical practitioner, distinctly describing the condition of A or B, is all that is necessary as far as the law in England is concerned. In Scotland the law is somewhat different, for “A certificate of bad health by a physician or surgeon must bear to be _on soul and conscience_.” ... “In cases of homicide, and other crimes against the person, medical certificates produced respecting the nature of the injuries must be verified on oath by the medical persons who granted them” (_Dictionary Scot. Law_). In Scotland, the omission of the words “on soul and conscience” invalidates a certificate.