Tracy Chatfield Becker

“ Our judges and lawyers seem slow to recognize the fact that the duties of experts are judicial, or at least quasi-judicial; to pass upon certain facts which neither the court nor the jury can understand without their aid. But, as we have seen from the citations just given, judges and lawyers have fully recognized the unreliability of expert testimony, produced as it now is in England and in this country at the whim and selection of the parties and paid for, much or little, according to the means of the parties. ”

“ In suicides ordinarily one wound only is met with. At any rate, probably one only that has destroyed life. Consequently the presence of several wounds, each of which was necessarily fatal, constitutes almost conclusive evidence of murder, the strength of the same depending upon the necessary fatality of more than one of these. Thus it is hardly conceivable that a suicide should shoot himself through the heart and through the brain; the coexistence of two such wounds would be almost conclusive of homicide. ”

“ In New York, in an action by a physician for compensation for his services, it was held that a person who merely answered for a physician at his office in his absence, and was not himself a physician, is not a witness whose testimony is privileged. ”

“ We perceive nothing in the statute which indicates an intention of the legislature to deprive one of any of his rights. No one has a right to practise medicine without having the necessary qualifications of learning and skill; and the statute only requires that whoever assumes, by offering to the community his services as a physician, that he possesses such learning and skill, shall present evidence of it by a certificate or license from a body designated by the State as competent to judge of his qualifications. ”

“ Although a given fatal wound might not have caused death under the best possible treatment and surroundings, yet, according to the above rule, the assailant is held responsible as long as the fatal result is due partly, at least, to the wound. Therefore we see the responsibility of the surgeon not only for the life of his patient, but also for that of the prisoner. He should, therefore, not deviate from the ordinary and most accepted practice in such cases, as any such deviation is taken hold of by the counsel for the defence. In fact, every point of the treatment is subjected to criticism. ”

“ The coroner’s right to dissect the dead body of a human being does not extend to all cases. Such a power could be wielded with the most injurious effects upon a community. His power to dissect is confined to those cases where he is authorized by law to hold an inquest upon the body. But a post-mortem examination, conducted by surgeons employed by a coroner holding an inquest, is not a part of the inquest in such a sense as that every citizen has a right freely to attend it. At common law it was essential to the validity of a coroner’s inquisition that the jury should view the body. ”

“ No one injury or bruise is mortal, and yet, when the deceased was previously sound and in good health, death must be referred directly to the multiple injuries received in the fight. We have already stated above that if the injuries are numerous, the loss of a smaller amount of blood may be fatal. We see, therefore, that there is not always a specific and visible “mortal” injury to account for death. This is a well-known medical fact, but it does not accord with the erroneous popular prejudice that no one can die from violence without some one visible wound which is mortal. ”

“ Few professions require more careful preparation by one who seeks to enter it than that of medicine. It has to deal with all those subtle and mysterious influences upon which health and life depend, and requires not only a knowledge of the properties of vegetable and mineral substances, but of the human body in all its complicated parts, and their relation to each other, as well as their influence upon the mind. The physician must be able to detect readily the presence of disease, and prescribe appropriate remedies for its removal. ”

“ The medical expert has absolutely nothing to do with guilt or innocence, as that is a question for the jury. He should, above all things, be absolutely free from prejudice, suspicion, or undue suggestion, and should remember that in thus sinking his personality his sole function as a skilled witness in cases of identity is to furnish testimony which, when taken in connection with other evidence in the case, may establish such a corpus delicti as would justify the inference of a crime. ”

“ He does not, if he is an attorney, undertake at all events to gain the cause, nor does a surgeon undertake that he will perform a cure; nor does the latter undertake to use the highest possible degree of skill, as there may be persons of higher education and greater advantages than himself; but he undertakes to bring a fair, reasonable and competent degree of skill. And in an action against him by a patient, the question for the jury is whether the injury complained of must be referred to a want of proper degree of skill and care in the defendant, or not. ”

“ This new point of judiciary medicine has lately been elaborated by European writers under the title of Dépeçage Criminel, a term which applies to the operation resorted to by an assassin having for its end the getting rid of the body of the victim and to render more difficult the establishment of its identity.
The cleverness of experts scarcely keeps pace nowadays [410] with the more complicated proceedings adopted by criminals. In fact, at a trial of this kind truth and science are often the under dogs in a fight, than which none in forensic medicine is longer and more embarrassing. ”

“ Average Standard of Skill of any Professed School must be Attained.—It is also a rule that one who professes to adhere to a particular school must come up to its average standard, and must be judged by its tests, and in the light of the present day. Thus a physician who would practise the reckless and indiscriminate bleeding which was in high repute not very many years ago, or should shut up a patient in fever and deny all cooling drinks, would doubtless find the old practice a poor excuse for his imbecility. ”

“ I am clear that if a person not having a medical education, and in a place where a person of a medical education might be obtained, takes it upon himself to administer medicines which may have an injurious effect, and such medicines destroy the life of the person to whom they are administered, it is manslaughter. The party may not mean to cause death, or the medicine may produce beneficent effects, but he has no right to hazard medicine of a dangerous tendency when medical assistance can be obtained. ”

“ Should the question come up as to whether a gunshot wound had been inflicted before or after death, we may remember the principal characteristics of a wound inflicted during life, which are more or less eversion, more or less hemorrhage with diffusion of blood into the tissues, and the presence of clots. In a wound made after death little or no blood is effused, unless it come from some vessel very near the surface, in which case it will be venous in character and will not coagulate as does that which is poured out of a wound in the living. ”

“ On considering all these circumstances, it may not be possible, even after careful inspection of the body and minute exploration of all the organs, to declare the drowning the consequence of an accident. The existence of traces of violence or of injury which may have occasioned death or disability, of such a nature as to render the person unable to defend himself, would seem to merit particular attention. But their presence leads to further consideration—were the marks of injury caused by the water itself, by some object in the water, or were they self-inflicted? ”

“ The fact that the physician does not prescribe does not defeat the privilege; if the information is acquired in the course of professional employment the statute operates, for the decision that neither advice nor medicine is needed is a professional act within the spirit of the law. ”

“ It is not one of those certain or exact sciences in which truths become established and fixed, but is essentially progressive in its nature, enlarging with the growth of human experience, and subject to those changes and revolutions incident to any branch of human inquiry, the laws of which are not fully ascertained. The labors of the anatomist, the physiologist, and the chemist have contributed an immense storehouse of facts; but the manner in which this knowledge is to be applied in the treatment and cure of diseases has been, and will probably continue to be, open to diversity of opinion. ”

“ To cause a rapid disappearance of the proofs of a homicide, with a view to escape the investigations of justice, murderers have been known literally to make hash of the victim which was subsequently eaten by themselves and others. ”

“ We can seldom give a precise solution of the question of survival to determine the succession or inheritance if several of a family die together in an accident. In case of death from inanition, cold or heat, or in drowning especially, if some have wounds more or less grave in themselves, we can sometimes [557] form an opinion. With wounds we cannot often do so, although in case of murder, the nature of the wounds, the position of the bodies, the examination of the spot of the accident or tragedy, may sometimes help us to form an opinion. ”

“ It is not often necessary to prove that a weapon was used, though it may affect the punishment. For the use of a weapon implies malice and intention and a greater desire to do injury. The prisoner may swear that no weapon was used when the nature of the wound clearly proves that one was used. The explanation of the prisoner of the origin of the wound may thus be discredited. We cannot often swear that a particular weapon was used, but only that the wound was made by one similar to it in shape and size. ”