Presidential Address

Abstract

My first duty this evening is to tender my thanks to the Society for the honour that it has conferred upon me in electing me as its President, for it is no mean honour to be the President of a society that is composed of members of both the medical and the legal professions throughout Great Britain. To follow Sir William Job Collins, who so ably watched over the Society through its early infancy; Mr. Justice Walton, whose geniality we shall never forget; Sir John Tweedy, who showed indefatigable interest in the Society; Professor Harvey Littlejohn, who travelled so often from Edinburgh to be amongst us; and the Right Hon. Sir Samuel Evans, whose death during his Presidency we all deplored, is indeed no mean honour, and is one the responsibilities of which I appreciate. Medical jurisprudence, or forensic medicine, or, in its widest sense, State medicine, is the application of the principles and knowledge of medicine to those of the law, and dates from the earliest times. Among the Egyptians, according to Plutarch, it was ordained that no pregnant woman should suffer afflictive punishment. Among the Greeks we discover Galen giving his attention to the differences between the lungs of the foetus and of those who were born alive. While the Romans, even from that early period in which Numa Pompilius flourished, founded many of their laws on the authority of ancient physicians and philosophers. The Emperor Adrian was thus influenced by them when extending the period of legitimacy from ten to eleven months. Some detached but striking medico-legal facts are also mentioned by the Roman historians. Thus the bloody remains of Julius Cresar, when exposed to the