Medical jurisprudence

Insane, with remarks and cases illustrative of Homicidal Mania and the Plea of Insanity.

The author has reason to believe that this small volume has already found a wide circulation, not only among members of his own profession, but among gentlemen practising at the bar. To many of these he has to express his obligations for suggestions which he has received, as well as for numerous important facts which they have kindly communicated to him. In order to meet the wishes of those members of the bar who make the book a kind of Circuit companion, a glossary containing some professional terms used in the volume has been added.

To make the work complete, the author proposes with the least possible delay to publish a treatise on a much larger scale, and printed in larger type. This new and enlarged volume will embrace not only many facts and cases to which it has been impossible to give more than a brief reference in the small work now published, but also some subjects of great interest in medical jurisprudence, for a notice of which it has not hitherto been possible to find room. The new subjects thus proposed to be introduced, are the various modes of DEATH,-SUDDEN DEATH, the SIGNS OF DEATH,-the changes in the dead body, including PUTREFACTION,-determination of the period of death, -the disinterment of bodies,-examination of bones in reference to sex, age, stature, race, period of interment, and other circumstances,―AGE and PERSONAL IDENTITY, PRESUMPTION OF SURVIVORSHIP,-LIFE INSURANCE, and FEIGNED and DISQUALIFYING DISEASES.

The author cannot close this notice without thanking the members of the Legal and Medical professions for the very great encouragement which they have hitherto extended to his labours in the science of Medical Jurisprudence.

GUY'S HOSPITAL, June, 1852.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRD AMERICAN EDITION.

THE great popularity of Dr. Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence is abundantly proved by the rapid disposal of several editions. This already wide circulation, and the author's long estab lished reputation, render it unnecessary to dwell upon the merits of his manual as a standard authority to members of the legal and medical professions.

It will be seen by the author's preface and the body of the work that many advantageous changes have been made, and a large amount of important matter added, in such a manner as very slightly to augment the volume, while they have materially enhanced its value. In this way, we think, the author has succeeded in producing a book which, however incomplete it may appear to one of his great learning and rigorous exactness, will nevertheless, for practical availability as a means of constant reference, go very far to lessen, at least in this country, the demand for a voluminous and costly treatise, such as he anticipates preparing at a future day.

The last English edition is brought so fully up to the level of its date, and so short a period has since elapsed, that the duties of the present editor have been comparatively light. He has taken care to incorporate in his own notes such of the additions of his predecessor, the late Dr. R. E. Griffith, as had not been used by Dr. Taylor, or as it seemed on other accounts desirable to retain. He has endeavoured, also, whilst avoiding any increase of bulk as much as possible, to present all the important facts and cases that have recently occurred within his knowledge, especially in this country; and he trusts that he has thus added somewhat to the usefulness of this reprint among his countrymen, if not to its interest generally as the latest publication on the subject.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

The additions are, as usual, inclosed within brackets, and are marked with the letter H. The Glossary which has been appended by the author for the benefit of members of the bar, although brief, has not been interfered with, because the American editor did not feel at liberty either to alter or to leave it out. It would be better for readers of every kind-legal, medical, and general-who are in need of explanations, to look at once to such a dictionary as DUNGLISON'S MEDICAL LEXICON, a book which no criminal lawyer or careful general reader should ever be without, rather than to the best glossary that could be given at the end of any work on Medical Jurisprudence.

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