Text-book of forensic medicine and toxicologyBuchanan, R. J. M. (Robert James McLean)
Science
Text-book of forensic medicine and toxicology
Buchanan, R. J. M. (Robert James McLean)
Medical jurisprudence; Poisons
The advice given by Sir W. Blizard may not be out of place here: “Be
the plainest man in the world in a Court of Justice; never harbour a
thought that if you do not appear positive, you must appear little
and mean for ever after; many old practitioners have erred in this
respect. Give your evidence in as concise, plain, and yet clear manner
as possible; be intelligent, candid, open, and just, never aiming at
appearing unnecessarily scientific. State all the sources by which
you have gained your information. If you can, make your evidence a
self-evident truth: thus, though the Court may at the time have too
good or too mean an opinion of your judgment, yet they must deem you an
honest man. Never, then, be dogmatic, or set yourself up for judge and
jury; take no side whatever, be impartial, and you will be honest. In
Courts of Judicature you will frequently hear the counsellors complain
when a surgeon gives his opinion with any of the least kind of doubt,
that he does not speak clearly; but if he is loud and positive, if he
is technical and dogmatic, then he is allowed to be clear and right. I
am sorry to have to observe that this is too frequently the case.”
=Liability of Medical Men to reveal Professional Secrets.=--The
question has arisen how far a medical man is bound to reveal the
secrets confided to him in his professional capacity as medical
attendant. This question was raised by Mr. Cæsar Hawkins in the trial
of the Duchess of Kingston (11 Harg. St. Tri. 243), before the House
of Peers, and decided by Lord Mansfield thus: “Mr. Hawkins will
understand that it is your (the other Peers) judgment and opinion that
a surgeon has no privilege, where it is a material question in a civil
or criminal course to know whether parties were married or whether a
child was born, to say that his introduction to the parties was in the
course of his profession, and in that way he came to the knowledge of
it. I take it for granted, that if Mr. Hawkins understands that, it is
a satisfaction to him and a clear justification to all the world. If a
surgeon was voluntarily to reveal these secrets, to be sure he would be
guilty of a breach of honour, and of great indiscretion; but, to give
that information in a Court of Justice, which, by the law of the land,
he is bound to do, will never be imputed to him as any indiscretion
whatever.” However objectionable it may be to the medical witness, and
be considered by him a breach of professional confidence, to reveal in
a Court of Law secrets known but to himself and patient, and regarded
as sacred, he has no privilege but to reveal them if demanded as
evidence, unless the evidence be such as might incriminate himself.
This is not the ruling in most Continental countries, where the medical
man claims the same privileges of secrecy as the priest in confessional.
3. EXPERIMENTAL
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