Thomas Brady

“ The want of such information must be every day more and more sensibly felt by the members of the bar; inasmuch as from the zeal with which medical jurisprudence is now cultivated by the medical profession, the evidence it supplies will be more frequently appealed to, and must have a great influence in legal proceedings; and, besides, the very arts that civilize and refine multiply the offences, for the detection of which scientific skill is required. The same science that provides a remedy against pain and suffering, arms the hand of the murderer with his most deadly weapon. ”

“ In assaults, it measures the amount of injury. In rape, it sustains or invalidates direct evidence itself; and in its most interesting applications it forms a part—and in general a most important part—of a chain of circumstantial evidence, where direct evidence is not attainable—as in secret murders, attempted assassinations, poisoning, and similar crimes. I may here observe, that it is in this last class of cases medical science has achieved its most signal triumphs, and conferred upon the administration of justice the most striking, if not the most important benefits. ”

“ In treating this part of the subject, I will adopt, as far as possible, an arrangement founded on legal principles, and consider, in the first place, the medical proofs in offences against the person—as murder, manslaughter, assaults, and procuring abortion; and then proceed to examine the evidence in cases of disputed legitimacy—feigned and suspected pregnancy—impotence and sterility—life insurance—unsoundness of mind, and public nuisances. Each will require a distinct consideration; as the nature of the medical evidence, and its object, are in some respects different in all. ”

“ When medical opinions are founded on experiments, I will, whenever it is practicable, repeat those experiments before you, and show you exactly how medical men, in such cases, arrive at their conclusions. ”

“ The numerous and important organs that constitute the digestive system—the stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, &c., will require and repay an attentive consideration. It is in the stomach, for example, we seek for evidence in one of the most common forms of crime—poisoning; and it is important you should not be ignorant of the diseases that simulate some in their symptoms, and some in their terminations, the effects of poison on that organ. ”

“ The Profession to which you belong is the portal to all those places of power, honour, and emolument. In that Profession knowledge and industry are almost sure to attain distinction and pre-eminence. It may be said men have risen to eminence at the bar without the aid of lectures, or the laborious study we now propose. ”

“ The object of this Course of Lectures is to communicate such a knowledge of medicine, and its collateral sciences, as is absolutely necessary in the practice of your profession. Questions of the highest interest, in a social point of view, are constantly occurring in our various courts of justice, some affecting the rights of property, some the health and comforts of whole communities, and some the character, the liberty, or the lives of individuals, the determination of which depends almost entirely on evidence derived from the medical sciences. ”

“ In the last case which I intend to cite, medical knowledge was equally successful, in a somewhat similar way, in defeating a conspiracy to impute the crime of poisoning. A man of the name of Whally was tried at the assizes of York for administering arsenic to a woman who was pregnant by him. She swore that the prisoner, after twice trying to prevail on her to take drugs, for the purpose of procuring abortion, sent her a present of tarts, of which she ate one and a half, and in half an hour after was seized with symptoms of poisoning. ”

“ Power sought them—they did not hang upon power; and in their high and influential stations they have the proud and cheering consciousness that Governments could only circulate in a wider and more useful sphere that which the public had already stamped as pure and genuine. ”

“ Thus, in treating of murder, it will be necessary to consider the various modes in which it may be effected; as, by hanging, strangling, suffocation, shooting, stabbing, poisoning, and, at the same time, the different kinds of sudden death from natural causes, which may be mistaken for the results of violence. ”

“ Look at the men who have risen to eminence, and who adorn, by their learning and ability, your Profession both in this country and in England. Have they not been almost invariably the architects of their fortunes? ”

“ There is no real security to the public against those errors, except in the intelligence and education of the barrister. If the bar be incapable of estimating aright the weight and value of medical evidence, one or other of two consequences necessarily follows—either this evidence is neglected, and kept altogether out of view, or, if acted upon, it is as likely to damage as to serve the ends of justice. ”

“ This evidence is here derived from certain changes that take place in the system of the child, and which are the necessary result of the changed condition of the being, the moment it passes from the womb to an independent state of existence. Thus the lungs, that during the whole period of intra-uterine life he unmoved in the chest, undergoing no change but the slow one of nutrition and growth, are at once at birth called into a state of activity, which is to continue unceasingly as long as life itself ”

“ But to rely on the influence of party in a Profession such as yours, that demands for the discharge of its high duties the most stainless integrity, the most unbending rectitude, and the most fearless independence; to seek to advance by becoming the mouth-piece through which the passions^ the prejudices, and the malignant feelings of the crowd—whether the high or the lowly born—are to have vent ”

“ To the judge—the magistrate of every order—the members of the legislature—to all, indeed, who are concerned in making or in administering the laws, it is almost equally necessary for the proper discharge of their important duties. ”

“ These facts are capable of being established in certain cases in the most conclusive manner from an examination of the child and the mother. But this requires much knowledge and skill, and a careless or inexperienced practitioner conducting such an investigation is liable to fall into the greatest errors. Take the first step in the inquiry—proof that the child was born alive, without which the indictment cannot be sustained, and which can scarcely ever be proved by any other than indirect evidence. ”

“ I intend to divide the entire course into three parts. In the first, my object will be to communicate such information respecting the situation, structure, functions, and some diseases of the chief organs of the body, as is absolutely requisite to render the subsequent parts of the course intelligible. The heart, the fountain itself of life, may first engage our notice. The importance of this organ in the animal economy; the nature of its functions ”

“ Suspicion fell upon a paramour of his, and a man whom she subsequently married; but no investigation took place for three years after; when the magistrates having directed a search, a body was found in the garden of the suspected persons. After a careful examination of the remains of the body—all the soft parts of which, except the vertebral ligaments, were destroyed—Dr. Delmas was able to arrive at the following conclusions: that the individual had been a male, of the age of forty or upwards, and had six fingers on his right hand, and possibly a sixth toe on the left foot ”