(b) On the part of the Doctor.—A person accused of criminally injuring another being held responsible for the results immediate and remote, may plead that the latter, i.e. complications, or the death itself are not due to the injury directly, and endeavour to throw the responsibility on someone else, either the injured person through negligence, or on the doctor for unskilful treatment. In reference to the complications, the medical witness may be asked for his opinion as to the cause and effect of the complication, and how it might have been avoided. Having considered all the facts laid before him and made his deductions, he must give his opinion fairly, and leave it to the Court to decide in what way his opinion may influence its judgment and the amount of punishment for the offence.
When there is an allegation that the treatment has been unskilful or negligent, and contributory to complications and death, and a defence raised accordingly, the prisoner has to prove this to the satisfaction of the Court in order to mitigate the offence and punishment. The medical man is expected to have exercised reasonable skill. If the person treating the injury is a registered medical practitioner, and has applied his treatment in good faith and for cure, even if the treatment were improper, the assailant would be held responsible.
The care which the medical man ought to exercise is that which everyone ought to exercise who has received the statutory education and passed the statutory examinations.
THE SEVERAL KINDS OF WOUNDS
(1) Incised; (2) Punctured; (3) Lacerated and Contused; and (4) Gunshot.
1. Incised Wounds
Made by sharp instruments.
General Characters.—Incised wounds are somewhat spindle-shaped, their superficial extent being greater than their depth; the edges are smooth and slightly everted, and the wounds are always larger than the weapon which inflicted them—due to retraction of the divided tissues. If a wound be in a line with the fibres of a muscle, there will be less “gaping” than when the wound is directly or obliquely across the muscle. From muscular contraction, or the elasticity of the skin, an incised wound may assume a crescentic form. The cellular tissue is infiltrated with blood, and coagula are found at the bottom and between the edges of the cut. It must be borne in mind that a wound with smooth edges may be made by a blunt weapon over bones near the surface, as on the scalp and over the tibia or shin, but a certain amount of contusion may, in most cases, be detected by careful inspection a short time after the receipt of the injury.
It is often of importance to distinguish where the weapon entered, and where it was drawn out. The end where the weapon entered is usually more abrupt than the other, which is naturally more drawn out. But in some cases I have seen, when the weapon was simply drawn across the part, both ends of the wound alike.