J. S. M. Fonblanque

“ If the deceased be found in an apartment, whether it be in a house of ill-fame?—Although the act of sudden death in a brothel very naturally excites the suspicion that some act of violence may have been committed, yet this feeling should not be carried too far; we must remember that the individual has been thus exposed, in an increased degree, to the occurrence of several of those natural accidents by which life is so suddenly extinguished; apoplexy, hæmopthysis, and syncope have assailed those who might have been predisposed to such diseases, at the moment of sexual indulgence. ”

“ Can the President and Censors of the College of Physicians execute their power of fine and imprisonment; can they restrain unlicensed intruders, or punish the bad practices of ignorant pretenders, without some study of the law? can they vindicate their rights without reference to the numerous acts of parliament on which they are founded? can they prove the guardians of the public health, without knowing the enactments by which it is protected? can they advise the legislative or executive power on numerous points submitted to their consideration, (as vaccine inoculation, quarantine, &c.) ”

“ There are many men, soldiers, who have been severely wounded, in the head especially, who well know that excess makes them mad; but if such persons wilfully deprive themselves of reason, they ought not to be excused one crime by the voluntary perpetration of another. [99]
“He who incites a madman (idiot, infant, or lunatic) to do a murder or other crime, (as to kill himself) is a principal offender, and as much punishable as if he had done it himself.” ”

“ The classification of the various topics of forensic medicine has ever been a fertile source of controversy; and we will venture to assert that, from the diversity, as well as versatility of the numerous subjects involved in the study of medical jurisprudence, no arrangement can ever be constructed which shall vie, in perspicuity and precision, with that of most branches of natural science, the objects of which, however numerous, maintain a mutual relationship, and admit of being displayed in a striking and natural order of connection. ”

“ That it ever should enter into the mind of any human being to prosecute measures which could by any possibility lead to consequences so disastrous, is almost inconceivable, and the only excuse that can possibly be offered for them (if excuse it can be called) is, that they are so entirely occupied by the consideration of their personal convenience and fancied interest, as to be incapable of forming a just conception of the momentous business they have undertaken. ”

“ Crell, sworn.—My Lord, it must be reading, as well as a man’s own experience, that will make any one a Physician: for without the reading of books in that art, the art itself cannot be attained to: besides, my Lord, I humbly conceive, that in such a difficult case as this, we ought to have a great deference for the reports and opinions of learned men: neither do I see any reason why I should not quote the fathers of my profession in this case, as well as you gentlemen of the long robe quote Coke upon Littleton in others. ”

“ If the reader be a medical practitioner, we refer him for an illustration to the feelings which he experienced during his examination before the medical colleges; and if he be a barrister, he may remember with what a parched lip he gave utterance to his first address to the jury. Is it then unreasonable to believe that a person under the influence of conscious guilt, will be unable, from the dryness of his mouth, to surrender the rice in that soft state, which an innocent individual, with an undiminished supply of saliva, will so easily accomplish? ”

“ In opening the body of George II, the aorta was found callous at the lower border of its curvature, and so dilated at its upper border, that it was as thin as the finest paper, in which part the rupture took place, and which was succeeded by a fatal hemorrhage; and yet the king, before his death, had not the slightest symptom that appeared to deserve much attention. In every case of sudden death the heart should be removed from the body for the purpose of examination, and no anatomical evidence should be received as conclusive, unless such an operation has been duly performed. ”

“ The question, how far the salubrity of the atmosphere may be affected by the effluvia of particular manufactories, is one that the medical practitioner is often called upon to decide; and upon such an occasion let him beware that his judgment be not swayed by the fastidiousness of the surrounding inhabitants, nor warped by the clamours of invidious rivals or interested opponents; as a man of science and integrity he is called upon to decide between two parties equally valuable to the state,—between the health and comfort of the citizen, and the prosperity of the manufacturer. ”

“ The stomach and intestines ought, in every case, to be considered as important objects of examination. It is possible that the trace of some aliment may be discovered, if so, no further proof can be required as to the child having lived. If any thing more than simple mucous fluid exist in the stomach, it should be examined by chemical tests. This remark, which we owe to Dr. Hutchinson, applies especially to the possibility of poison having been exhibited; and on this point the mucous membrane of the stomach will furnish useful evidence. ”

“ How far and in what cases opinion is evidence, is next to be considered; in ordinary matters where, from a statement of facts, the jury, in the exercise of sound and ordinary understanding, are capable of arriving at a just conclusion, the opinion of a witness is neither requisite or admissible; but in matters of science it is otherwise, provided that he backs his opinion by such reason as may be satisfactory to the understanding of his hearers; and this is the principal qualification of a medical witness, that he make himself intelligible to ordinary comprehensions. ”

“ In our general view of the human skeleton, two important problems present themselves for solution—the Age, and Sex, of the individual to whom it belonged. The skeleton of the fœtus, with which we shall commence our observations, is capable of furnishing more satisfactory data upon the subject of age than any examination of its softer textures, which are necessarily less evident and regular in their progress of developement. ”

“ It is hardly necessary for us to make any observation upon a prejudice so absurd and unfounded; Evelyn also seems, in our opinion, to attribute more evils to the smoke than can be well substantiated; “I report myself,” says he, “to all those who have been compelled to breathe the air of other countries for some years, if they do not now perceive a manifest alteration in their appetite, and clearness of their spirits, especially such as have lived long in France and the city of Paris.” ”

“ The counsel who have argued for the issuing of the mandamus do not contend that a licentiate, as such, does ipso facto become a member or a fellow of the college: they only say that any man who is fit in learning and morals has a right to offer himself for examination, without any superadded qualification; and therefore that the bye-law requiring “that every licentiate, in order to entitle him to offer himself for examination, shall be a doctor of one of the two universities in England or that of Dublin,” is a void bye-law. ”

“ It will very properly be urged that a woman, on finding what has happened, ought, if her feelings and intentions were honest, to give immediate alarm. This is true, but says Dr. Smith, we must admit, in the first place, the possibility of her not being able to do so, in consequence of the effects of the occurrence on her own person; and, in the next place, it is but just to allow that, although an alarm, after she has fully recovered, might secure her in the case of trial, yet as it can be of no use in restoring the life of the child, the idea of concealment will more naturally arise. ”

“ Where it is among other things laid down that mere weakness of mind only is not a sufficient reason for granting the custody of the person and of his estate. The cupidity of relations is too apt to magnify indiscretion, eccentricity, and more particularly pecuniary extravagance into signs of madness; juries and commissioners cannot be too much on their guard against such modes of proof, lest one half of the world should lock up the other. The Romans committed prodigals to the custody of a guardian, as if they had been infants or madmen ”

“ England, which in the beginning of the sixteenth century had been behind all the then civilized world in medical knowledge, finds herself in the commencement of the nineteenth inferior to none in any branch, superior to most in some, and taking a decided lead in all the ramifications into which the science of physic and the sister arts have divided themselves. ”

“ In many criminal cases too the surgeon is of necessity among the first witnesses of the deed; is it not important that he should know what evidence will be required to prove its perpetration? surrounded by ignorant or prejudiced persons, his calm and accurate view, not only of medical, but of general points, becomes of peculiar importance; yet if he be unacquainted with the forms of judicial enquiry, unversed in the history of criminal courts, he will be as little able to direct his attention to the proper objects, or to divest his mind of undue bias, as the most ignorant of the by-standers. ”

“ If a patient complains of a long protracted disease, which has rendered his life uncomfortable, and we at the same time perceive that his body has not undergone emaciation, we are naturally led to suspect the truth of his statement; and we shall find little difficulty in verifying, or dispelling our suspicions; nor ought we to forget, in an inquiry of this nature, to learn whether the patient has in truth ever flown to any remedy for relief ”

“ It is well known that women can only bear children until a certain age, after which the uterus is no longer capable of performing the action of gestation, or of performing it properly; now it is observable, that this incapability or imperfection takes place sooner in those who are advanced in life before they marry, than in those who have married and begun to bear children earlier; thus we find, that a woman who marries at forty shall be very apt to miscarry ”

“ This difference in the time of life at which puberty takes place, has been ingeniously assigned by David Hume as the reason why women in hot climates are almost universally treated as slaves; and why, on the contrary, their influence is so powerful and extensive in colder regions; for in the former, woman may be said to be in the zenith of her beauty while she is yet a child in understanding, and long before her intellect is matured she ceases to be an object of love ”

“ If the law does not acknowledge this stage of life, it at least tacitly allows it, as being the one best adapted for the vigorous discharge of public duties; it is the age at which the greatest enterprizes have been achieved, and the most brilliant efforts of human genius fulfilled; the developement of the body having been accomplished, its powers are expanded in the production and support of intellectual energies. ”

“ In cases of impotence, sterility, idiotcy, and lunacy, the confidential medical attendant is the first person consulted on the subject; how often may he refute a groundless accusation, remove a causeless fear, and prevent a public exposure, by forming and demonstrating correct views of the subject? how often too may he aid the oppressed, defeat the guilty, and protect the innocent, by a knowledge of the legal remedies against fraud or coercion? ”

“ SUPPOSITITIOUS CHILDREN. But there is yet another question which may, and in truth frequently does occur; where either a pretended pregnancy is followed by the grosser fraud of imposing a strange child upon the husband, either for the purpose of fixing his affection, or securing his estate; or where a living and healthy child is substituted for one either dead, or too sickly to give reasonable hope of prolonged existence. To this crime our laws assign no specific punishment; the parties can only be indicted for a conspiracy as they might have been for any ordinary misdemeanor ”

“ Justice Bayley.—“I hope it is sufficiently notorious, that the causing persons to pass through the streets, who may have that disorder upon them, although they are going for medical advice to some person in whom they may have confidence, is an indictable offence; and if that person, instead of attending them at their own houses, as he might do, chooses to direct that they shall, from time to time, be brought, or come to him, there is no question that he is liable to an indictment.” ”

“ While the intricate and perplexing subjects of quarantine and plague police, will require for their elucidation, the energies of a peculiarly constructed and well disciplined mind, to concentrate the genuine lights into a focus, and to dissipate the many specious, but false appearances, with which the question of contagion has been distorted. ”

“ That premature labour may be induced by a mechanical operation, is too well known to the practitioner in midwifery to require any explanation in this place, while, in a work calculated for circulation beyond the confines of the profession, it would be obviously imprudent to enter into any minute details. It becomes our duty, however, to state, that in those cases of distorted pelvis, through which a full grown fœtus cannot pass without mutilation, the operation may be performed with perfect safety, and with equal advantage both to the child and to the mother. ”

“ It is impossible to question the justice and policy of this maxim as a general principle of legislation; “Salus Populi Suprema Lex,”—but there are circumstances which ought to exempt certain establishments from the operation of the common law of nuisances; we allude to those grand national works for smelting ores, which could not be closed without fatally affecting our national prosperity, and compromising the fate of the Arts themselves. ”

“ Let us, for the sake of illustration, suppose the following case:—A woman loses her husband suddenly, tenant in tail male, a month after marriage, and at a little more than eight months after his decease she is delivered of a perfect female child, and at nine months, she declares that she is delivered of another infant, which is a male. The heir at law, who has entered, contests the fact of this latter birth; the question therefore to be determined is, whether such an event is compatible with the known laws of utero-gestation. ”

“ In Paris the number does not exceed 70,000, and yet with all the cumbrous enactments which that government has passed for their regulation, how far inferior they are in cleanliness, and how far greater are the effects of their effluvia, when compared with similar establishments in our city. The truth is, that the most elaborate system of medical police will never be so effective as the spirit of cleanliness which is so characteristic of this great and free people ”

“ Before we proceed to consider the several questions which may arise for the consideration of the medical witness, in the discharge of his forensic duties, we shall offer a few observations upon a point which has frequently given rise to discussion—Whether the existence of insanity cannot be equally, or in some cases, more satisfactorily established, or disproved, by witnesses who are not of the medical profession? by persons, for instance, who have had opportunities of observing the individual, where the same advantages have not been in the power of the practitioner. ”

“ Hippocrates and other ancient physicians entertained a conceit, which has even prevailed in the more modern schools of physic, that an infant could live at seven, but rarely or never at eight months; it is hardly necessary to observe with Haller, that the capability of living in an infant increases in the ratio of its maturity, or in proportion as it advances towards the natural period of delivery; the child, therefore, that is born at the expiration of eight months has of necessity a greater aptitude for living than the one which is produced at seven ”

“ Nor is it uncommon that a woman, who has actually consented to her own dishonor, should, on fear of discovery, or on disappointment, or from jealousy, prefer an accusation of rape against her seducer; here the main fact being true, the coition having taken place, and under the usual circumstances of secresy, the life of a prisoner depends on the mere question of consent or violence ”

“ The institution of medicine and jurisprudence, necessarily arose as the consequence of the physical and moral infirmities of our nature, and must, therefore, have been nearly coeval with the origin of society. In the earlier periods, however, of the world, the connection between these sciences could only have been slight, and scarcely, perhaps, perceptible; although we are strongly inclined to believe that Medical Jurisprudence has an origin far more ancient, and an influence far more extensive, than modern writers have been willing to concede ”

“ A painter or a sculptor would be more competent to decide a question of this nature than a physician or surgeon, but in their absence there is none on whose testimony we can more safely rely than on the medical witness, whose habits of observing the formation, changes, and peculiarities of the human body, naturally prepare him for such examination. ”