Professor Lister then replied, in German, requesting them to excuse his shortcomings in the language, and saying there was no place in the whole of Germany where such an honour as he that night received could be more grateful to him; for here it was, especially, in the operating theatre of Professor Thiersch, that the antiseptic method was first scientifically carried out in Germany; and in the neighbourhood of Leipzig, also, at Hallé, Professor Volkmann, in his laboratory, had done much to improve that method. He then referred to the fact that in the hospital here salicylic acid had entirely superseded carbolic, and, speaking of the former, said that he had received great service from it; for, if one leaves carbolic bandages on a wound so long as a week without changing, one finds usually that they are no longer sweet, and that there is considerable irritation of the skin set up, while the addition of a small amount of salicylic acid serves to remove the irritation and to keep the bandages sweet. Whether salicylic acid will take the place of carbolic, further experience alone can show; but as far as he could see, he thought not. From experiments he had made, it seemed to him that salicylic acid did not destroy bacteria so quickly as carbolic, the greater power of being diluted (Verdunstbarkeit) possessed by the latter giving it a great advantage over the former; also the penetrability of carlolic acid through the epidermis enabling it better to purify the skin, though, as far as the bandage is concerned, it is evident that salicylic acid is of great service.

Afterwards, Professor Carus proposed a toast to the University of Edinburgh, which was founded in the same year as that of Leipzig, and in which he had had the honour of living as member for two summers—which had had the good fortune to be founded at a time when science had begun to take à more prominent position, and so had happily remained free from the scholastic disputes and philosophies which weigh down and oppress the more ancient English Universities. He gave them the toast of that University, which had produced so many eminent men, such men as Allison, Laycock, Simpson, Syme, and, last but not least, Lister himself.

The only other speech worth mentioning was by Professor Volkmann, who, seeing Mrs Lister, Mrs Thiersch, and other ladies, in the gallery, rose and said, that in the English House of Commons it had lately become the custom to see strangers in the gallery; now he too saw strangers in the gallery, but, more polite than the House of Commons, he would propose, not that they should be removed, but that with one loud cheer, all present should drink the health of the ladies.

Between the speeches and throughout the course of the evening, songs were sung by a quartet of students, and a band in the gallery played music of various kinds; among others "Bonnie Dundee, ""Coming through the Rye," etc. There were also two songs composed by students especially for the occasion, which were sung by the whole mass of students who were present.-Yours, etc.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Part First.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ARTICLE I. On the Practice of Medical Jurisprudence. By H. D. LITTLEJOHN, M.D., F.R.C.S. Ed., Surgeon of Police and Medical Officer of Health for Edinburgh; Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence and Hygiene, School of Medicine, Edinburgh.

NO. I. INTRODUCTORY.

IN the present series of papers I propose to treat of the practical departments of Medical Jurisprudence, including the examination of dead bodies at the instance of the authorities and the various reports which are founded on those inspections-a subject of great importance to the practitioner of medicine, who may at any time be called upon to discharge duties of a medico-legal nature.

It cannot be said that at present the student of medicine has any opportunity of becoming practically acquainted with these most important details. He rarely, if ever, enjoys the advantage of witnessing his teacher make a post-mortem examination with all the formalities demanded by our criminal law in a case of suspicious death. And he is never called upon, from notes which he has taken during the dissection, to draw up a medical report, although the first case to which he may be summoned on his settling in practice, may be one demanding a careful dissection and elaborate report. His teacher may be a highly accomplished lecturer, well read in the literature of Medical Jurisprudence, and able to discourse learnedly on the various topics of his course, but his prelections are theoretical; and necessarily so, for the science has not its corresponding practical course like the other great branches of medical study. Anatomy has dissecting rooms; Physiology and Chemistry, laboratories; Botany, gardens; Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery, dispensaries, hospitals, and museums, in which practical tuition is available, and the student has every opportunity of observing facts for himself in the presence of his teacher, and of testing the value of the lessons of the lecture room.

As it is, the student undergoes an examination in Medical Jurisprudence, founded on his acquaintance with his notes of his teacher's lectures, and possibly with some well-known text-book,

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and is found duly qualified to practise. Let us follow him into circumstances in which he may be summoned to give evidence in a court of law, and we take for illustration an ordinary case of accident in the public street, which has occurred through the carelessness of the driver of some vehicle, and where the medical man may, from his accidental proximity, be called upon to give his professional assistance. He is, in all probability, unaware of the fact that the case which he has just treated is necessarily made the subject of judicial inquiry, and to his surprise he is waited upon by an officer, who requests a statement as to the condition of the injured party. And here his embarrassment commences: his hospital experience has enabled him to attend judiciously to his patient, but he has never drawn up a medico-legal report; of the structure of such documents he is ignorant, and the statement, which he at last furnishes, may not only be incomplete from his having probably forgotten to note many details regarding the injuries which should be mentioned, but it may fail to supply the public prosecutor with the information which is necessary for the proper management of the case. We knew of an instance of murder, where death was caused by cramming the mouth of an infant with dough, which was represented to the authorities by the faulty wording of the medical report as a case of death resulting from disease. At the time diphtheria as a popular name for a fatal disorder had been lately introduced, and "a doughy mass in the pharynx" (for such was the expression employed by the medical examiners) was considered as a graphic description of this unusual disease. The authorities were of course satisfied with a report which promised them so little trouble and anxiety. When translated, however, into the language of correct description, "the doughy mass in the pharynx" was resolved into "a mass of dough" in that important cavity. The equivoque was accidentally discovered, and at once the officials were put on the alert, and exchanged their apathy for the most diligent investigation. But it was too late: in the detection of the criminal, days and even hours are of the greatest importance, and in the present case fully a week had elapsed since the discovery of the body, and after an ineffectual search the case was abandoned.

Not only may justice be frustrated by inaccurate reports, examples of which from the past history of medical jurisprudence might be quoted in abundance, but, from his ignorance of certain technical expressions, the medical man may cause annoyance to those who administer the law, and at the same time put a fellow-subject to great inconvenience. A short time ago a certificate from a surgeon, sent by a juryman to excuse his non-attendance at our criminal court, was thrown aside as informal, for it had not been couched in the proper phraseology, and omitted those mysterious but very necessary words, "on soul and conscience." The offending juryman was duly fined, and the

trouble and delay incurred before the fine was remitted can be easily imagined. But to return to our case of accident. The medical man is required to state in his report whether the injuries received" involve danger to life." Now, what is he to understand by "danger to life"? He has been taught to consider the slightest injuries are occasionally fraught with danger, and he may remember the particulars of cases in which wounds, otherwise trifling, were followed by the most dangerous consequences. Desirous on the one hand of protecting the interests of his patient, and on the other of vindicating his character for sagacious foresight, he may declare that the injury in question is dangerous-meaning thereby the bare possibility of its proving fatal at some stage or other of its progress. The public prosecutor who receives such a report, naturally enough reads it in the light of his official instructions, and at once proceeds to have the deposition of the injured party taken, lest such important evidence should be lost, and he himself exposed to censure for neglecting to take the dying man's testimony. A magistrate has to be summoned on the instant, clerks have to be provided, and the irritation of the legal functionaries may easily be understood at being thus unreasonably put to inconvenience through the misapprehension of the medical attendant. Of course the medical profession would not fail in the circumstances to be reflected on for this comparatively trifling oversight of one of its youngest members.

But other and equally disagreeable results may follow. The person who may be charged as having inflicted the injury is at once taken into custody, and is naturally anxious to regain his liberty, were it only for the purpose of communicating with his friends and his attorney, so as to be able to prepare for his defence. He claims, therefore, the benefit of being admitted to bail. But, unfortunately for him, injuries which are characterized by a legally-qualified practitioner of medicine as dangerous," are expressly excluded from the list of bailable offences. And until the medical attendant can conscientiously declare that the special danger is past, the party charged must remain in prison. Such a mistake as unintentionally aggravating the character of an injury is by no means of uncommon occurrence; and but lately I became aware of a case of a simple uncomplicated fracture of the fibula, in which a medical man in good practice refused to grant the necessary certificate of freedom from danger until the end of the second week. The power of thus detaining an accused party in custody is rightly vested in the medical profession, and errors no doubt may be committed by over laxity in an estimation of the danger of particular injuries as much as by undue exaggeration of their importance; but it is evidently of much consequence that the lawyer and the medical man should be agreed on the meaning of terms in common use by both.

Again, take a case of ordinary assault, one of daily occurrence be