The History of Forensic Medicine
689
sterility in the female, impotency in
appeared in 1660, in which he considers
man, the signs of virginity, pregnancy and labor, the duration of gestation,
the fatality of wounds, and advises the
monsters, hermaphrodites, obsessions, sorcery, demoniacal possession, philtres,
performance of autopsies. The book is entitled Rationale vulnerum lethalium judicium. In 1689, Bohn treated the same subject much more deeply in
the simulation of diseases or infirmities,
a work which possesses considerable
contusions and wounds, accidental death or by violence, miracles, resurrections, etc. Among these questions there are some which have still remained and will
authority, entitled
irregular parturitions and the birth of
De
renunciatione
vulnerum.
In the eighteenth century we find the Pandectm medico-legales by Michel Bern
continue to remain, in the decision of
hardt Valentin.
which the courts will always resort to medical science for information. Others
medico-legal questions asked by the Ger
have disappeared with the fall of the
tury and discussed in the universities. This example was followed by Zittmann
canon law and the change in customs. Then again, others which owed their
existence to the imperfect knowledge of the time, the love of the marvelous and
superstitions, little by little fell by the wayside as the scientific mind became developed. The Renaissance and the seventeenth century consequently mark the com mencement of the scientific period of forensic medicine. Like all other branches of medicine this one received a remarkable impulse, and although the
It is a collection of
man courts during the seventeenth cen
in 1706; Alberti, in 1725; Loew, in 1725. Richter, in 1731, gave a collection of decisions rendered by the universities and the civil and ecclesiastical courts.
The general treatises which hold a promi nent place in medico-legal literature should also be mentioned. Teichmeyer‘s treatise, published at Jena in
1722,
entitled Institutiones medicime legali's 'uel forensis in quibus practituaa maten'w ci'm'les, cn'minales, et consiston'ales tra duntur, is of great importance. Then
latest born, it very soon occupied a very
come those of Goelicke, in 1723, Eschen
large place in the history of medicine.
bach, in 1746, F. Hofimann, in 1746, and the classical treatise by Hebenstreit,
As has been pointed out, Germany, from the Caroline Constitution, was the first to outline a criminal procedure and to form an excellent organization of forensic medicine. A special and com petent personnel, the teaching of the subject in the universities, combined
with a regular and extensive observa tion, were all conditions which assured
a remarkable development of legal medi cine in this country. Beginning with Zacchias, one will find a large number of
periodical publications and general treat ises in which the most interesting cases have been collected and commented upon. Among the principal works I
would mention that of Welsch, which
in 1753, entitled Anthropologia forensis sistens medici circa rempublicam causasque dicendas ofiicium. And lastly, the works of Daniel and Plouquet on pulmonary docimasia, of Heister, in 1727, on preco
cious and tardy births. The great men of medicine, van Swieten, Haller and
J. P. Franck, are also associated with legal medicine of the time. France was far from being so richly endowed in works on forensic medicine, but there were, however, some very important cases which occupied the attention of physicians and resulted in
important researches. Thus, Lecat, in 1750, put forward his singular theory of
