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HISTORY OF FORENSIC

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 31 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HISTORY OF FORENSIC See also:MEDICINE At the See also:close of the 16th See also:century See also:Ambrose See also:Pare wrote on monsters, on simulated diseases, and on the See also:art of See also:drawing up medico-legal reports; Pineau also published his See also:treatise on virginity and defloration. About the same See also:time as these stimuli to the study of forensic medicine were being made known in See also:Paris, the first systematic treatise on the See also:science appeared in See also:Sicily in the See also:form of a treatise De relationibus medicorum by Fidele. Paulo Zacchia, the illustrious See also:Roman medical jurist, moreover, published from 1621 to 1635 a See also:work entitled Quaestiones medico-legates, which marks a new era in the history of the science—a work which displays an immense amount of learning and sagacity in an See also:age when See also:chemistry was in its See also:infancy, and See also:physiology very imperfectly understood. The See also:discovery of the circulation of the See also:blood by See also:Harvey soon followed, and gave a new impetus to the study of those branches of forensic medicine having See also:direct relations to physiology; and to Harvey we owe the See also:idea how to apply See also:Galen's observations on the See also:differences between the foetal and the adult lungs to the elucidation of cases of supposed See also:infanticide. About this time, too, Sebiz published two See also:treatises, on the signs of virginity and on the examination of wounds respectively. In the former he contended that the See also:hymen was the real See also:mark of virginity; but this was denied by Augenio and Gassendi. In 1663 See also:Thomas Bartholin investigated the See also:period of. human uterine gestation, a subject which had engaged the See also:attention of See also:Aristotle. He also proposed the " hydrostatic test " for the determination of live-See also:birth—a test still in use, and applied by observing whether the lungs of an See also:infant See also:float or sink in See also:water. J. See also:Swammerdam explained the rationale of the See also:process in. 1677; but it was not till 1682 that it was first practically applied by See also:Jan See also:Schreyer. See also:Germany, ever the See also:leader in questions of forensic medicine, introduced the, first public lectures on medical See also:jurisprudence.

See also:

Michaelis gave the first course about the See also:middle of the 17th century in the university of See also:Leipzig; and these were followed by the lectures of See also:Bohn, who also published De renunciatione vulnerum; cui accesserunt dissertationes binae de partu enecato, et an quis vivus mortuusve aquis submersus, strangulatus, rut vulneratus fuerit, and De officiis See also:medici duplicis, clinici et forensis. Welsch and See also:Amman wrote on the fatality of wounds, and Licetus on monsters. From the time of Ambrose Pare the mode of conducting investigations in forensic medicine had attracted attention in See also:France; and in 1603 See also:Henry IV. authorized his physician to appoint persons skilled in medicine and See also:surgery to make medico-legal inspections and reports in all cities and royal jurisdictions; in 1692, difficulties having arisen, See also:Louis XIV. created hereditary royal physicians and surgeons for the performance of like duties. These, having become a corrupt and venal See also:body, were suppressed in 1790. The only See also:works on forensic medicine which appeared in France during the 17th century, however, were Gendry's Sur See also:les moyens de bier rapporter d See also:justice and Blegny's See also:Doctrine See also:des rapports en chirurgie. At the beginning of the 18th century the latter was superseded as a See also:text-See also:book by Devaux's L'Art' de faire des rapports en chirurgie. Valentini followed with two works, which were finally incorporated in his Corpus See also:juris medico-See also:legate which appeared in 1722. This work is a vast storehouse of medico-legal See also:information, and a See also:summary of the knowledge of the time. Professorships for teaching the subject were founded in the See also:German See also:universities See also:early in the 18th century, and numerous treatises on ' forensic medicine were published. Teichmeyer's Institutiones medicine legalis See also:long formed the text-book of t'l e subject; and See also:Alberti, See also:professor of legal medicine at See also:Halle, in his Systema gave to the See also:world a most See also:complete and laborious treatise on the science. His industrious collection of facts renders his works a See also:precious mine of information. Indeed towards the close of the 18th century the Germans were almost the only cultivators of legal medicine.

But in France the celebrated See also:

case of Ville-See also:blanche attracted attention to the subject, and called forth Louis, who in a memoir on utero-gestation attacked with powerful arguments the pretended instances of protracted pregnancy, and paved the way for the See also:adoption in the See also:Code Napol€on of The true origin of medical jurisprudence is of comparatively See also:recent date, although traces of its principles may be perceived in remote times. Among the See also:ancient Greeks the principles of medical science appear only to have been applied to legislation in certain questions See also:relating to See also:legitimacy. In the writings of Galen we find, however, remarks on the differences between the foetal and the adult lungs; he also treats of the legitimacy of seven months' See also:children, and discusses feigned diseases. Turning to See also:Rome, we find that the See also:laws of the Twelve Tables See also:fix three See also:hundred days as the extreme duration of utero-gestation. It is doubtful whether the Roman See also:law authorized medical inspections of dead 'bodies. In the code of Justinian we find De statu hominum; De poenis et manumissis; De sicariis; De inspiciendo venire custodiendoque partu; De muliere quae peperit undecimo mense; De impotentia; De hermaphrOditistitles which show obvious traces of a recognized connexion between medicine and law. It was not, however, by the testimony of living medical witnesses that such questions were to be settled, but on the authority of See also:Hippocrates. Medical jurisprudence, as a science, See also:dates only from the 16th century. In 1507 the See also:bishop of See also:Bamberg introduced a penal code in which the See also:necessity of medical See also:evidence in certain cases was recognized; and in 1532 the See also:emperor See also:Charles V. persuaded the See also:Diet of Ratisbon to adopt a See also:uniform code of German penal jurisprudence, in which the See also:civil See also:magistrate was enjoined in all cases of doubt or difficulty to obtain the evidence of medical witnesses,—as in cases of See also:personal injuries, infanticide, pretended pregnancy, simulated diseases, and poisoning. The true See also:dawn of forensic medicine dates, however, from the publication in 1553 of the Constitutio criminalis carolina in Germany. A few years later Weiher, a physician, having undertaken to prove that witches and demoniacs are, in fact, persons subject to See also:hypochondriasis and See also:hysteria, and should not be punished, aroused popular indignation, and was with difficulty rescued from the flames by his See also:patron, See also:William See also:duke of See also:Cleves. three hundred days as the limit of utero-gestation, a period in precise accordance with the ancient Roman law of the Twelve Tables.

Louis also wrote on See also:

death from See also:hanging, and pointed out the mode by which we may distinguish See also:murder from See also:suicide under such circumstances. It is he who is credited with having been the first in France to publicly See also:teach the just application of medical knowledge to jurisprudence. Fodere's celebrated Traits de medecine legale appeared in 1798, and marks a new era in the See also:annals of legal medicine. No See also:British author wrote systematically on forensic medicine till 1788, when Dr See also:Samuel See also:Farr published a See also:short treatise on the Elements of Medical Jurisprudence; but this was merely an abridgment of an earlier work of Fazelius. Previous writers—as See also:Mead, See also:Munro, See also:Denman, See also:Percival and the two Hunters—had, however, dealt with fragments of the subject; nevertheless the science as a whole was little appreciated or recognized in this See also:country during the 18th century. In the 19th century France took the See also:lead; and the institution of three professorships of forensic medicine at the end of the 18th century produced excellent fruits. In 1814 See also:Orfila, a Spaniard by birth, but naturalized in France, published his Toxicologie, a work which revolutionized this See also:branch of medical jurisprudence, and first placed the knowledge of poisons upon a scientific basis. Since the time of Orfila, France has never ceased to have one or more living medical jurists, among the most recent of whom we must enumerate Tardieu, whose treatises on See also:abortion, on poisons, on wounds, &c., are justly celebrated. Germany too industriously pursued the subject, and Casper's See also:great work on forensic medicine will ever remain a classic in the science. In See also:Russia Dragendorff greatly contributed to our knowledge of poisons. Though forensic medicine may be said to have been entirely neglected in See also:England till the beginning of the 19th century, its progress has since been by no means slow or unimportant; and the subject now forms a recognized and obligatory portion of medical study. The first lectures delivered in Great See also:Britain were given in the university of See also:Edinburgh in 1801 by the See also:elder Dr See also:Duncan; and the first professorship was held by his son in 1803.

Dr See also:

Alfred Swaine See also:Taylor gave the first course of lectures delivered in England, at See also:Guy's See also:Hospital in 1831; and in 1863 the university of See also:London made forensic medicine a See also:separate subject for examination and honours for medical graduates. In 1822 there was not in the See also:English See also:language any treatise of authority either on medical jurisprudence or on any important See also:division of the subject; for it was not till the following See also:year that the useful compendium of Paris and See also:Fonblanque was published; and even in the middle of the 19th century medical jurisprudence may be said to have been almost in its infancy as compared with what it is now. From 1829 Great Britain produced an abundant See also:crop of literature on forensic medicine. See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Christison's admirable treatise on See also:Toxicology, Dr A. S. Taylor's Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence (1905 edition, by F. JSmith), the same author's Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, Dr Guy's Forensic Medicine, and Ogston's Lectures on Medical Jurisprudence have become well-known and widely circulated works. The separate See also:memoirs of Taylor, Christison, Guy and others are also storehouses of facts and deductions in the science. See also:America, too, has not been behindhand in the See also:race. F. See also:Wharton and M. Still6's See also:Manual, Wormley's Toxicology, and the works of See also:Beck and Reese have furthered the study of the science.

See also See also:

Dixon See also:Mann, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology (London, 1902); Wynter See also:Blyth, Poisons: their Effects and Detection (London, 1895) ; Allbutt and Rolleston, A See also:System of Medicine, vol. ii. " Intoxications " (London, 1999); See also:Vaughan, Twentieth Century Practice of Medicine, vol. xiii. See also:article " Ptomaines, Toxins and Leucomaines " (London, 1898) ; Maschka, Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin (See also:Tubingen, 1881—1882); See also:Hofmann, Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin (Wien, 1898) ; Strassmann, Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin (See also:Stuttgart, 1895) ; See also:Kunkel, Handbuch der Toxikologie (See also:Jena, 1899); Brouardel, L'Infanticide, La Pendaison, &c. (Paris, 1897). (H. H. L.; T. A.

End of Article: HISTORY OF FORENSIC

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