Abstract
Medical jurisprudence, as Casper said, is a science
of itself, and not a mere encyclopaedia of the other
medical sciences. In the following chapters J. have
set myself the novel task of viewing the principles and
practice of medical jurisprudence from the stand-point of the
court, the bench, the Judge. The broad principles of
law as they come before the jurist in connection with
all proceedings, whether medico- legal or not, are set
forth. The law of England, including its recent trend,
as applicable to the medico-legal subjects most commonly
before the courts, is stated; the nature of the medical
evidence required as legal proof in canes at issue
is shown; and the present position of medical science
in relation to facts required in evidence is sketched
in greater or less detail as the circumstances seem to
demand. From an accumulated mass of materials, legal
and medical, culled from others and from
original observations and experiment I have
selected illustrative examples, showing the methods of
science, in its various departments, applied to medico-legal
investigation, especially in criminal cases.