[228]. Phil. Trans. for 1775; see also Thomson’s Hist. of the Royal Society, article Political Arithmetic, p. 530.
[229]. The term Medicine (Ars Medendi) is used generally as including Surgery.
[230]. For the Law of Evidence in general see Trials per pais; Gilbert’s Law of Evidence; Viner’s Abr. tit Evidence; Bacon’s Abr. tit Evidence; Comygn’s Digest. tit Testmoigne: Buller’s NP; Espinasse NP; Peake on Evidence; Phillips on Evidence; 2 Tidd’s Practice 845.
[231]. See Severn v. Olive (Appendix, p. 201), in which it is also determined that the expense of experiments to elucidate or determine points in dispute cannot be allowed in costs. We regret the decision, as it may in future cases stand in the way of important and highly useful investigations.
[232]. See Cutt v. Pickering 1 Vent, Lord Say & Sele’s Case; Macclesfield, 41. or Annesley & Anglesea, 9 St. Tri. 383, 392.
[233]. Lord Barrington’s objection to disclose confidential conversation was also over-ruled in the case cited above.
[234]. It has been decided in civil cases, that declarations even of a dying man, made post litem motam are not admissible as evidence; this appears to be rather a fine drawn distinction, and if it were extended to criminal matters would be productive of some mischief; for then if a man died of his wounds, after the assailant had been committed or indicted, declarations made under circumstances of equal solemnity and religious force, would be evidence or not according to the hour of the day at which they were uttered. The distinction is not taken in the law of Scotland, as appears by the stress laid by Lord Mansfield, on such declarations in his judgment in the Douglas cause. 2 Collec. Jurid.
[235]. Baptist or quaker surgeons should therefore, in cases likely to come before the criminal tribunals, take care to have persons associated with them who may supply their places in Court; we do not urge them to be sworn, as we should place less reliance on an oath taken in breach of conscientious scruples, than on the affirmation which is rejected in obedience to the forms of law.
As a quaker if living could not be heard as a witness in a criminal case, query his declarations when dying, does the solemnity of the occasion dispense with the form of an oath?
[236]. For the medical dangers and advantages of celibacy and marriage, the reader, if fond of such speculations, may consult Mahon, vol. 3, p. 43, 80.