If a medical man takes upon himself the responsibility of imprisoning a person on the ground of insanity, upon mere statements made to him by others, he will be liable to an action, and also for an assault, unless he can indeed show that the party imprisoned was insane at the time [395]. He is not liable for an assault if he has signed a certificate under the Lunacy Acts and has done nothing more towards causing the confinement of the alleged lunatic [396]. A medical man or other person may justify an assault where it is committed for the purpose of putting a restraint upon a dangerous lunatic in such a state that it is likely he may do mischief to some one [397]. In Ontario, except under order of the Lieutenant-Governor, no one can be admitted into a lunatic asylum without the certificate of three medical men, each attested by the signatures of two subscribing witnesses. Their certificates must state a personal and separate examination, and that after due enquiry the patient was found insane; and the physicians must also specify the facts upon which they formed their opinion of the insanity. In England, except in the case of paupers, two certificates are required [398]. The practice of abortion is forbidden by the oath of Hippocrates. The act is recognized as a crime in almost every code of medical ethics: its known commission has always been followed by ignominious expulsion from medical fellowship and fraternity. At Common Law a child _en ventre sa mere_ is not considered a person the killing of whom is murder; but if one, intending to procure abortion, causes a child to be born so soon that it cannot live, and |147| it dies in consequence, it is murder [399]. And it is murder if one, attempting to procure abortion, either by means of drugs or instruments, cause the death of the woman [400]. In most civilized countries it is now either a felony, or grave misdemeanor, to attempt to procure the miscarriage of a woman by any means; or to supply or procure any thing knowing that it is intended to be unlawfully used or employed to procure a miscarriage [401]. In some States the crime of abortion may be committed at any stage of pregnancy [402]. The thing prescribed must be noxious in its nature, but it is not necessary to prove that it will produce miscarriage [403]. The burden of shewing that the use of instruments to produce abortion was necessary to save the life of the woman is on the accused [404]. It is an indictable offence for a physician, or any one else, unlawfully and injuriously to carry along or to expose in a public highway, on which persons are passing, and near to the habitations of others, any person infected with the small-pox, or any contagious disorder; and it is for the accused to shew that the object of the carrying or exposure was lawful [405]. In England, since 1840, it has been an indictable offence to innoculate for the small-pox [406]. So, too, it has been in Canada for a number of years [407]. |148|