Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.

—Bold text has been rendered as =bold text=.

—Multiple and antiquate spelling of specialistic words, expecially in
 French and German, have beed manteined out of consistency and due to
 the impossibility of determining what the spelling whas at the time
 this work was composed.




                                MEDICAL

                             JURISPRUDENCE


                           FORENSIC MEDICINE

                                  AND

                              TOXICOLOGY


                                  BY

                      R. A. WITTHAUS, A.M., M.D.

_Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Hygiene in the University of the
                     City of New York, etc., etc._

                                  AND

                     TRACY C. BECKER, A.B., LL.B.

      _Counsellor at Law, Professor of Criminal Law and Medical
              Jurisprudence in the University of Buffalo_


                      _WITH THE COLLABORATION OF_

     J. CLIFTON EDGAR, M.D.; D. S. LAMB, M.D.; W. B. OUTTEN, M.D.;
               HON. WM. A. POSTE; EDWARD S. WOOD, M.D.;
                         E. V. STODDARD, M.D.;
     HON. GOODWIN BROWN; J. C. CAMERON, M.D.; E. D. FISHER, M.D.;
    H. P. LOOMIS, M.D.; ROSWELL PARK, M.D.; IRVING C. ROSSE, M.D.;
            F. P. VANDENBERGH, M.D.; J. H. WOODWARD, M.D.;
                          GEORGE WOOLSEY,M.D.


                              VOLUME ONE


                 NEW YORK WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY 1894




                           COPYRIGHT, 1894,
                       BY WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY

                               PRESS OF
                   THE PUBLISHERS’ PRINTING COMPANY
                       132-136 W. FOURTEENTH ST.
                               NEW YORK




                               CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE

INTRODUCTION,                                                        v


 MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE,                                               1

  The Legal Relations of Physicians and Surgeons. T. C.
  BECKER,                                                              3

  The Law of Evidence Concerning Confidential Communications.
  CHAS. A. BOSTON,                                                    89

  Synopsis of the Laws Governing the Practice of Medicine.
  W. A. POSTE and CHAS. A. BOSTON,                                   135


 FORENSIC MEDICINE.

  THANATOLOGICAL,                                                    293

  The Legal Status of the Dead Body. T. C. BECKER,                   295

  The Powers and Duties of Coroners. A. BECKER,                      329

  Medico-Legal Autopsies. H. P. LOOMIS,                              349

  Personal Identity. J. C. ROSSE,                                    383

  Determination of the Time of Death. H. P. LOOMIS,                  437

  Medico-Legal Consideration of Wounds. G. WOOLSEY,                  457

  Medico-Legal Consideration of Gunshot Wounds. ROSWELL PARK,        591

  Death by Heat and Cold. E. V. STODDARD,                            627

  Medico-Legal Relations of Electricity. W. N. BULLARD,              661

  Medico-Legal Consideration of Death by Mechanical Suffocation.
      D. S. LAMB,                                                    705

  Death from Submersion or Drowning. J. C. ROSSE,                    793

  Death from Starvation. E. V. STODDARD,                             813




INTRODUCTION.


THE terms FORENSIC MEDICINE, LEGAL MEDICINE, and MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE
have heretofore been used interchangeably to apply to those branches
of state medicine and of jurisprudence which have to deal with the
applications of medical knowledge to the elucidation of questions of
fact in courts of law, and with the legal regulation of the practice of
medicine.

MEDICO-LEGAL SCIENCE therefore includes all subjects concerning which
members of the legal and medical professions may seek information of
one another, each acting in his professional capacity. It consists
of two distinct branches: that treating of medical law, to which
the designation of MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE properly applies; and that
relating to the application of medical, surgical, or obstetrical
knowledge to the purposes of legal trials, FORENSIC MEDICINE.[1]

The term STATE MEDICINE, which is sometimes erroneously used as
synonymous with forensic medicine, properly applies to a more extended
field of medical inquiry; _i.e._, to all applications of medical
knowledge to the public welfare. State medicine, therefore, while
excluding medical jurisprudence, includes, besides forensic medicine,
public hygiene, medical ethics, medical education, and military and
naval medicine.

TOXICOLOGY, the science of poisons, may be divided into _medical
toxicology_, whose object is the prevention or cure of all forms of
poisoning, and _forensic toxicology_, whose aim is the detection of
criminal poisoning.