Part 10

In case of dispute, the Home Secretary, Whitehall, S.W., should be applied to forthwith.

=3. CIVIL ACTIONS.=

If your services are required by =one party= to a suit, it is for you to arrange terms; the solicitor is not himself liable. =A guinea= per diem usually is regarded as the minimum fee; travelling expenses (which should be paid in cash previous to the journey) are additional.

You can =demand= payment (in Court) before you consent to be “sworn” as a witness; having been “sworn” you are bound to give your evidence.

III. SOME LIMITATIONS TO MEDICO-LEGAL EVIDENCE.

=1. IMPOSED BY RULES OF EVIDENCE.=

A medical witness, =as such=, cannot give evidence which will influence the Court to show

1. That a woman is past the age for procreating and bearing children.

2. That a child born nine months after lawful wedlock is illegitimate.

3. That, in the absence of eye-witnesses, a newly-born dead child was live-born.

4. That in a common disaster a certain person must have died last.

5. That children under seven can commit an indictable offence.

=2. IMPOSED BY INADEQUACY AND UNCERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE.=

1. The presence of gonorrhœa cannot be established by microscopical evidence.

2. A small mammalian blood-stain cannot be sworn to be “human.”

3. In a case of sudden death you cannot state whether a bruise was inflicted immediately before or immediately after the death.

4. The sex of a very old or a very young skeleton cannot be determined.

5. The age of a skeleton, after complete ossification, is guess-work.

6. Death cannot be affirmed until putrefaction sets in.

7. Pregnancy must not be asserted until quickening has been felt, or the fœtal parts are palpable.

8. Affiliation to putative parent from personal resemblance is insufficient.

=3. CASES WHERE A POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION IS NECESSARY TO TEST.=

1. Alleged Drowning: otherwise in the absence of eye-witnesses of the fatality, “found dead in the water” is the only logical conclusion.

2. Alleged Overlaying: otherwise “found dead in bed with the parents” should be the “open verdict.”

In 1 and 2, cardio-respiratory diseases must be noted.

3. Alleged Still-birth: for although live-birth cannot thereby be proved in the absence of direct eye-witnesses, the lungs may have functioned.

4. Anatomical post-mortem examinations should be performed wherever possible in medico-legal cases; they are essential in alleged criminal homicide.

IV. VITAL ACTIVITIES WHICH MAY HAVE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED SUDDEN DEATH,