J. S. M. Fonblanque

“ 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. ”

“ The same power that authorises them to judge of fitness also authorises them to regulate the mode by which they shall judge. They think, of which they are much better judges than we can be, that every man who is to be a candidate ought either to have taken his degree at one of our universities or in Dublin, or shall be proposed by one fellow, or by the president. The bye-laws requiring this do not appear to me unreasonable or inconsistent with the character any more than requiring a particular mode of education, and in the case so often alluded to Lord Mansfield thought such bye-laws were good ”

“ 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. ”

“ Patients have not unfrequently laboured under the impression of their having taken poison, when there can never have existed the least ground for such a suspicion, and yet their general conduct has been in complete opposition to the idea of insanity: [1] a curious case of this kind is related in the Sepulchretum of Bonetus; and even during the progress of the present work, the author was consulted upon an illness, which the patient seriously attributed to the operation of a slow poison, declaring that it had been secretly administered during a philanthropic visit to one of our public prisons. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Have you ever known an instance of a person in good health, eating a hearty dinner, and then sitting down to tea, taken instantly with vomiting and purging in that way described?—I have seen a case very similar to that. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Drunkards who swallow a great deal of liquor, and those who are forced by the civil law to drink a great quantity of water, which in giving the question (as it is called) is poured into them by way of torture to make them confess crimes, have no suffocation or drowning happen to them: But on the other hand, when any quantity comes into the wind-pipe, so as it does hinder or intercept inspiration, or coming in of the air, which is necessary for inspiration or breathing, the person is suffocated. ”

“ If a justice of the peace commits a man for being the Father of a bastard child no action lies against the justice if the man was the father of a bastard otherwise if he had no bastard at all. So the case between Nickols and Walker, Cro. Car. 394, (a) is good law, for there an inhabitant of Tottridge was charged to the poor of Hatfield; and the justices of the peace have power to award a distress, where a person is assessed to the poor of the parish where he hath land or is an inhabitant; but where he is charged to the relief of another parish there the case is beyond their jurisdiction. ”

“ If upon opening the cavity of the abdomen we should have reason to suspect the existence of any perforations in the stomach or bowels, the anatomist must proceed with great caution, so as not to enlarge their diameters, or alter their appearance. In the case of Miss Burns, the medical report lost much of its value, from the want of due precaution in this particular; see our account of the dissection, vol. ii, page 178. Should the contents of the stomach or intestines have escaped into the general cavity, we should be careful in collecting such matter, with a view to its future analysis. ”

“ If a woman die from hemorrhage, or from any other cause in child-birth, the appearances that will present themselves on dissection have been thus clearly described by Professor Burns. [39] “The uterus is found like a large flattened pouch, from nine to twelve inches long; the cavity contains coagula, or a bloody fluid, and its surface is covered by the remains of the decidua. Often the marks of the attachment of the placenta are very visible. This part is of a dark colour; so that the uterus is thought to be gangrenous by those who are not aware of the circumstance. ”

“ The only decisive marks, therefore, by which a female skeleton can at once be distinguished, are to be found in the structure of the pelvis, and arise from the obvious cause of the female possessing a proper frame to become a mother. The pelvis of a female, at and below the linea innominata, formed by the lower part of the inside of the ileum, and ridge of the pubes, is much more capacious, from side to side, than in the male. The entrance or brim of the cavity is also more oval, the greatest diameter being from side to side. ”

“ All that was necessary was that it should be composed of a sufficient number of learned and discrete practisers of physic, who should have a power of continuing the succession in such persons as themselves, and that they should license proper persons and restrain unfit persons from the practice of it. If this were the object, is it natural to construe the charter as giving a right to all men of the faculty to become members of this body, when the charter speaks of men of the faculty in a sense contradistinguished from the members of the body ”

“ The ovaria are susceptible of very considerable enlargement by diseases, so as to occasion the appearance of pregnancy, the most common of which is dropsy; in some cases the whole substance is converted into a capsule containing fluid, so large as to occupy nearly the whole cavity of the abdomen. There is one phenomenon, connected with the morbid anatomy of these organs, that deserves particular notice in this work, as being a subject in some degree connected with judicial enquiry—the change of these parts into a fatty substance containing hair and teeth! ”

“ That the cause of commitment is not traversable appears by the authority which the censors have by the act of parliament; for by it they are constituted judges of fact, what is a mal-administration (of medicines) and what is not: and they are judges of record for they have authority to impose fine and imprisonment; and when a new authority is constituted, with power to fine and imprison, the persons invested with such authority are judges of record; for that every thing proves a court to be a court of record, viz. the power of fining and imprisoning ”

“ 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.” ”

“ I, A. B. do solemnly promise and swear (or, being one of the people called Quakers, do solemnly affirm) that I will faithfully, impartially, and honestly, according to the best of my skill and knowledge, execute the trust reposed in me by the Master, Wardens, and Society of the Art and Mystery of Apothecaries of the City of London, as an Examiner, in the Examination of every person who shall come before me to be examined, as to his fitness or qualification to act as an Apothecary, or Assistant to an Apothecary, as the case may be, and that without favour, affection, prejudice, or malice. ”

“ Sergeant Taddy followed on the same side, and observed, that while he admitted the general principle that expenses were not allowed for loss of time, except to physicians and attornies, he could not see why scientific men, such as chymists, should not be brought under the same rule as physicians.
The Chief Justice.—For this reason, that to a physician loss of time is considered as loss of profit. A physician cannot visit a patient by deputy, as the patient might not have the same confidence in that person as in that physician, and this I take to be the reason why the loss of time is allowed. ”