The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
“Hæc est illa amica Imperantiam atque Medentium conspiratio, quaeffectum est, ut aliquo veluti connubio Medicina ac Jurisprudentia interse jungerentur.”
3. Of Homicide generally.—4. Of Real and Apparent Death.—5. Of the Physiological Causes, and Phenomena of Sudden Death.—6. Of Syncope.—7. Of Suffocation, by Drowning, Hanging, and other causes.—8. Death by exposure to Cold—Heat—Lightning—Starvation.—9. Application of the Physiological Facts established in the preceding chapters, to the general treatment of Asphyxia.—10. Of the Coroner’s Inquest.—11. Suicide.—12. Of Murder generally—by Wounding or Blows—by Poisoning.—13. Of Poisons, Chemically, Physiologically, and Pathologically considered.—14. Of Homicide, by Misadventure or Accident.—15. A Synopsisof the Objects of Inquiry in Cases of suddenand mysterious Sickness and Death,—Commentarythereon, including practical rules for Dissection.—16.Abortion and Infanticide—with PhysiologicalIllustrations.—17. Of Criminal Responsibility, andPleas in bar of Execution.—18. Of Punishments.—19.Postscript.
To aid the administration of justice in cases of homicideis not only the most useful, but the most frequent,application of medical jurisprudence; thissubject, as well for its complexity as for its importance,must be subdivided into many heads. It is firstnecessary that the medical practitioner should determineby examination, inspection, or dissection,whether the matter ought to be referred to the criminaltribunals, or whether the decease of the party isto be attributed to any of those natural causes, whichare generally classed as “Death by the Visitation ofGod.” In some instances this examination will takeplace in aid of the coroner’s inquest, in others it willbe preparatory to it; in both cases it is equally importantthat it should be minutely, fait