In those countries, where it becomes necessary to check the increase of population, we again find that ecclesiastical institutes are made subservient to state policy; thus the religion of the Island of Formosa[[5]] prohibits women becoming mothers before the age of thirty-five years; and, should they become pregnant before that time, the priestess procures abortion by violence[[6]].
In the book of sacred law of the Hindus,[[7]] the rules for the choice of a wife are formally and minutely detailed, and will be found remarkably conformable with our physiological notions respecting the transmission of disease and deformity.
The knowledge of Forensic Medicine, if not as ancient and universal as the Institutes of Medical Police, may still boast of an early origin, and a very extensive influence; thus in Deuteronomy[[8]] in cases of doubtful virginity, the Elders are to be consulted, in order that they may deliver their judgment from the physiological evidence of the case. In ancient nations the assistance of the philosopher and physician was universally required for the prevention, as well as detection of crime; thus was Archimedes consulted by the king of Sicily, when a workman was suspected to have fraudulently alloyed the gold in his crown. The Romans, especially in the reign of Severus, Antonine, Adrian, and Aurelius, constructed several laws, and reformed some others, in conformity with the sentiments inculcated in the works of Hippocrates and Aristotle; the capital crime of procuring abortion was accordingly limited to those cases wherein the fœtus exceeded forty days; and the Emperor Adrian passed a decree upon the subject of legitimacy, as connected with the period of utero-gestation, according to the physiological opinions with respect to the possibility of retarded delivery;[[9]] while Numa Pompilius prohibited the burial of a pregnant woman, or of one supposed to be pregnant, until the fœtus should have been extracted, or the state of the uterus ascertained by dissection.[[10]].
The trials by ordeal in the dark ages of modern Europe, when the decision of the most important questions was abandoned to chance or to fraud, when carrying in the hand a piece of red hot iron, or plunging the arm in boiling water,[[11]] was deemed a test of innocence, and a painful or fraudulent experiment, supplanting a righteous award, might consign to punishment the most innocent, or save from it the most criminal of men, have ever been deemed a shocking singularity in the institutions of our barbarous ancestors. We are ready to admit the justice of this charge generally; and yet we fancy that, upon some occasions we are enabled to discern through the dim mist of credulity and ignorance, a ray of policy that may have been derived from the dawning of a rude philosophy. Trials by ordeal, as we are informed by Mr. Mill, hold a high rank in the institutes of the Hindus. It appears that there are no less than nine different modes of trial, but that by water in which an idol has been washed, and the one by rice, are those which we shall select as well calculated to illustrate the observations which we shall venture to offer. The first of these trials consists in obliging the accused person to drink three draughts of the water in which the images of the Sun and other deities have been washed; and if within fourteen days he has any indisposition, his crime is considered as proved. In the other species of ordeal alluded to, the persons suspected of theft are each made to chew a quantity of dried rice, and to throw it upon some leaves or bark of a tree; they, from whose mouth it comes dry, or stained with blood, are deemed guilty, while those who are capable of returning it in a pulpy form, are at once pronounced innocent. When we reflect upon the superstitious state of these people, and at the same time, consider the influence which the mind, under such circumstances, is capable of producing upon the functions of the body, it is impossible not to admit that the ordeals above described are capable of assisting the ends of justice, and of leading to the detection of guilt. The accused, conscious of his own innocence, will fear no ill effects from the magical potation, but will cheerfully acquiesce in the ordeal; whereas the guilty person, from the mere uneasiness and dread of his own mind, will, if narrowly watched, most probably discover some symptoms of bodily indisposition, before the expiration of the period of his probation. In the case of the ordeal by rice, a result, in correspondence with the justice of the case, may be fairly anticipated on the soundest principle of physiology. There is perhaps no secretion that is more immediately influenced by the passions than that of saliva. The sight of a delicious repast to a hungry man is not more effectual in exciting the salivary secretion, than is the operation of fear and anxiety in repressing and suspending it. If the reader be a medical practitioner, we refer him for an illustration to the feelings which he experienced during his examination before the medical colleges; and if he be a barrister, he may remember with what a parched lip he gave utterance to his first address to the jury. Is it then unreasonable to believe that a person under the influence of conscious guilt, will be unable, from the dryness of his mouth, to surrender the rice in that soft state, which an innocent individual, with an undiminished supply of saliva, will so easily accomplish?
These few examples will suffice to shew that Medical Jurisprudence had an early origin; and yet we are ready to admit that its applications were extremely desultory, and often, from the infant state of the sciences upon which it rested, not only imperfect but erroneous; indeed the question may be very fairly maintained, whether on many occasions the evidence of the physician has not embarrassed where it should have enlightened, and misled where it was called upon to direct the steps of justice. Forensic medicine, however, could scarcely be considered as constituting a branch of legislation, until its utility was publicly recognised, and its assistance legally required. This admission will compel us to assign to Germany the honour of its origin, for the Medical jurist is first acknowledged, and his services formally required, in the celebrated criminal code framed by Charles the Fifth, at the Diet of Ratisbon, in the year 1532, known by the name of the “Constitutio Criminalis Carolina,” and which still constitutes the basis of the criminal proceedings of the German courts. In the code it is enacted, that medical men shall be consulted whenever death has been occasioned by violent means, whether criminal or accidental, by wounds, poisons, hanging, drowning, or the like; as well as in cases of concealed pregnancy, procured abortion, child-murder, &c. The publication of such a code very naturally awakened the attention of the medical profession, and summoned numerous writers from its ranks. The first of whom were Bohn[[12]], Valentini[[13]], Boerner[[14]], Kannegeiser[[15]], and Struppe; Alberti[[16]], Zittman[[17]], Richter[[18]], Teichmeyer[[19]], and Stark[[20]]; some years after whom came Hebenstreit[[21]], Ludwig[[22]], and Fazellius[[23]].
The first German work of any authority is that of John Bohn, published in 1689, and entitled “De Renunciatione Vulnerum,” in which the author attempts to shew what wounds are necessarily fatal. In 1704, the same Professor presented to the profession a forensic work of greater range, for the purpose of giving rules for the conduct of physicians in attending the sick, and in delivering evidence before a court of judicature; it is entitled “De Officio Medici, duplici, clinico et forensi.” At about, or rather previous to the publication of this latter work, the celebrated Pandects of Valentini appeared, which form a compendious retrospect of the opinions and decisions of preceding writers on Juridical Medicine. In his preface Valentini endeavours to enforce the necessity of cultivating this branch of Medical Science; and although more than a hundred and twenty years have elapsed, how aptly will his rebuke apply to the medical witnesses of the present age—“Evenit sæpe ut etiam illi qui magno Archiatrorum Practicorumque felicissimorum titulo superbiunt, in publicis hujuscemodi occasionibus facultatibus, ut Mus in pice, hæreant, ineptisque relationibus facultatibus Academicis non tantum risum moveant, sed et omnem, qua prius gaudebant estimationem protinus amittant.” This was followed by the works of Kannegeiser, and of Frederic Boerner, medical professor of Wirtemburg, on various subjects connected with Legal Medicine. The system of Alberti of Halle, in six volumes quarto, appeared in 1725. Amongst the numerous questions elucidated by this laborious author, we may particularize those relating to conception and utero-gestation; and the reader will perceive that we have frequently availed ourselves of his opinion upon these points. Nearly cotemporary with Alberti, were Zittman, Richter, and Teichmeyer, from whose writings we have also had frequent occasion to extract some valuable observations. In 1730 the progress of Medical Jurisprudence was very considerably advanced by the publication of the argumentative work of Storck, in which the utility of medical knowledge in assisting the operation of the laws, is very ably and warmly advocated. The Anthropologia Forensis of Hebenstreit, from which we have so frequently derived useful information, did not appear until 1753, and was followed by the Institutes of Ludwig, and the Elements of Fazellius. In 1781, Plenck[[24]] published his Elementary work on Forensic Medicine and Surgery; and in the following year the first volume of Haller’s[[25]] celebrated Lectures on Juridical Medicine, in the execution of which he takes the Institutes of Teichmeyer as his text, correcting his errors, and amplifying his opinions. This work was subsequently completed in three volumes. In 1784, Daniel, by the title of his work[[26]] published at Halle, first introduced the term of State Medicine, as expressive of that branch of medical science of which we are now treating. The annals of the close of the eighteenth century are enriched by several important productions; amongst which may be particularized Conspectus of Sikora[[27]], the First Lines of Loder[[28]], the System of Metzer[[29]], and the Delineations of Muller[[30]]. If the reader be desirous of further information respecting the German literature of State Medicine, at this period, we must refer him to the great works of Schlegel[[31]] and Plouquet[[32]]; Struvius likewise in his Bibliotheca Juris, (vol. i. p. 172) refers to the work of Andreas Otto Goellicke, Frankfort, 1723, for an enumeration of the numerous medico-legal writers of the earlier part of this age.
During the present century we have received two volumes from the pen of Metzger; and in the year 1806, Knappe and Hecker commenced at Berlin, a periodical publication, under the title of “Critical Annals of State Medicine;” some years after which a similar work appeared under the superintendance of Professor Kopp of Hanau. In speaking of the periodical works of Germany, we must not omit to mention that conducted by Dr. Scherf, Aulic Counsellor at Detmold, under the title of “Contributions to the Archives of Medical Police,” which extended to eight volumes, and was afterwards continued under the appellation of “Isis,” or “Journal of Medical Jurisprudence and Police.” To the catalogue of writers already enumerated, we might add many more; but having cited the most celebrated works we consider it unnecessary to adduce farther demonstration of the indefatigable and laborious industry of the German literati.
The middle of the sixteenth century may be stated as the epoch at which the subjects of Medical Jurisprudence first excited much attention in the schools of Italy. The earlier writers, however, would appear to have studied the science rather with casuistical, than physiological views. Fortunatus Fidelis, who has been regarded as the father of the Medico-legal literature of Italy, first published his work “De Relationibus Medicorum,” at Palermo, about the period above stated; it was afterwards republished at Venice, and lastly at Leipsic, under the care of Paul Amman, Professor of Botany and Physiology in that University. It consists of four books, of which the following may be received as an outline of the contents, viz. I. On Public Food; the Salubrity of the Air; Pestilence. II. Wounds; Pretended Diseases; Torture; Injuries of the Muscles; Medical Errors. III. Virginity; Impotence; Hereditary Diseases; Pregnancy; Moles; the Vitality of the Fœtus; On Birth; Monsters. IV. Life and Death; Mortality of Wounds; Suffocation; Death by Lightning and Poisoning.
Amongst the earliest dissertations which appeared on questions connected with the subject of Jurisprudence, and which merits notice on this occasion, is one by Frederic Bonaventura, an eminent scholar and physician of Urbino, in Italy, who flourished in the early part of the seventeenth century, entitled, “De Natura partus octomestris, adversus vulgarem opinionem, libri decem.” Francof. 1601; an enormous folio volume, containing upwards of one thousand pages, on this uninteresting subject; in which he has introduced the opinions of different writers, and an account of all the controversies that have been held on the legitimate period of utero-gestation. The most celebrated however of all the Italian works which have descended to us, is that of Paul Zacchias,[[33]] physician to Pope Innocent the Tenth, who was long considered as the only arbiter of questions relating to any of the subjects of Juridical Medicine. The estimation in which this work was universally held may be easily discovered, from the expressions with which it is mentioned by all cotemporary writers. Zacutus Lusitanus, in alluding to its value, exclaims “Emi,—vidi—legi—obstupui”! When we consider the period at which it was written, it must certainly be acknowledged as a very extraordinary work; that it should be overrun with casuistical subtleties cannot be a matter of surprise; the style too is entirely scholastic, full of digression, and prolix passages of erudition, but such was the taste of the age in which it was composed. We are also to remember that at this period, the philosophy of Aristotle alone directed the schools, and the doctrines of Galen, illustrated by a thousand servile commentators were, according to the judgment of that æra, the only sources from which medical opinions could be legitimately deduced. The study of Anatomy had only then commenced under the guidance of Vesalius, Columbus, Fallopius, and Eustachius; while Surgery, notwithstanding the labours of Paré, Arceus, Andrew Dalla Croce, Aqua Pendente, and other masters, was in its mere infancy. Chemistry too was as yet full of conceit and uncertainty; and Pharmacy was absolutely without any acknowledged principles. As the great work of Zacchias was composed at different periods, with considerable intervals between each, we find numerous repetitions, and contradictions. It is therefore evident, that although the “Quæstiones Medico-legales” may afford much instruction to the learned physician, it can be of no service to the student; this opinion is justly expressed by “Camerarius[[34]]—Quisquis Pauli Zacchiæ opus legere cum fructu voluerit, insigni jam rerum medicarum notitia instructus sit oportet; eo magis quod alia sit modernæ Medicinæ facies; ditissimus enim thesaurus est liber iste, supplendus tamen subinde ex aliis fontibus recentioribus.”
Barnardin Ramazzini, having been struck with the numerous accidents which had occurred to Nightmen, was induced to direct his attention to the causes and nature of the asphyxia by which they perished, and to extend his investigation to the maladies to which the artisans in every profession were more peculiarly subjected. He accordingly, in the year 1700, published at Padua, an excellent treatise on these affections, entitled “De Morbis Artificum Diatriba,” a work which has retained its credit as a standard production, and to which all subsequent works on the same subject have been very largely indebted. It was translated by Fourcroy, who also enriched it with many valuable notes in 1777. It has also been presented to the public in many other countries, at different periods, and under various forms; as by M. Hecquet, 1740; Skragge, in 1764; Bertrand, in 1804; Gosse of Geneva, in 1516; and Patissier, in 1822.