Remarks on the History of Forensic _Medicine from the Renaissance to the Nineteenth Century By CHARLES GREENE CUMSTON, M.D.l
ISTORIANS generally consider the promulgation of the Criminal Con stitution of Charles V, otherwise termed the Caroline Constitution, as a decisive foundation of the development of legal
medicine in Europe. This constitution was voted at the Diet of Ratisbon in 1532, as a law of the empire. Without doubt it would be an exaggeration to attribute
to the Caroline Constitution a revolu tion or an impulsive initiation in forensic medicine, because, as I shall point out,
with reference to visits and expert work by physicians and surgeons, as well as
the necessary information to be ob tained from them on those questions of
their art which could be used for evi dence, this code simply was in conform ity with the old practices observed be fore its promulgation in various juris dictions, although it generalized them. It is well known that in 1507, John of Schwarzenberg, chancellor of the Bishop
years before the German judges recourse to them.
The following are the only articles of the Caroline Constitution in which recourse to physicians or midwives is rigorously specified. I would draw particular atten tion to the last two, as they show a ten dency to the performance of autopsies. Art. 35.—If a girl is suspected of having been delivered of a child in secret and of hav ing killed this child, one should in the first
place ascertain if she had been seen in a very apparent condition of pregnancy, and this pregnancy having diminished, whether or not she became pale and weak. If these kinds of signs and indications are met with and the woman is such that she may be suspected, it is proper to proceed still further and have her secretly examined in private by reliable and experienced matrons. If this examina tion confirms the suspicion, and she neverthe less will not declare the crime, she may be put to the torture. Art. 36.—When the child is killed only a short time before, the mother will not have lost
of Bamberg, had drawn up an ordinance for this prince (which later on served as a basis for the Caroline Constitution)
in which the work to be done by physi cians in medico-legal practice was regu
lated. It should also be noted that in the articles relating to rape, abortion, infanticide, and poisoning, or dementia of the accused, absolutely nothing is said of verification or medical reports from physicians, although such reports seem
indispensable in the majority of cases, but it is an undoubted fact that many 1Honorary Member of Surgical Society of Belgium, Ex-Vice-President of American Association of Obstetri cians
and
Gynecologists, Member
Historical Society of France, etc.
of
the
Medical
had
her milk,
so that the milk
may
be
drawn from the breast, and if it is good and perfect, this would be a strong and evident presumption to cause her to pass through the torture. Nevertheless, since some physicians teach that occasionally from natural causes milk may occur in a girl who has never been pregnant, if such a fact is invoked, a more ample verification must then be made by the midwives. Art. 147.-—If a person who has been struck and wounded, dies at the end of a certain
length of time in such a manner that it makes it doubtful whether or not the blows or wounds have been the cause of death, experienced surgeons should be consulted, who will know whether the death occurred before the blows and wounds were received, and if this is not the case they can indicate how long the per son has survived after receiving them.
