690
The Green Bag
was so greatly credited in popular imagi nation and which was even accepted for
We should also mention Lafosse, known by his critical examination of the Calas case, which resulted in a friend
a certain time by scientists. Then Lorry discusses the questions of survival.
ship between himself and Voltaire; and Chaussier, who in 1783, in a ‘memoir
In 1765, tardy birth was the object
which has remained celebrated, shows the great importance of legal medicine and draws attention of the courts to the
spontaneous combustion, a theory which
of very bitter discussion among Bertin, Lebas, Bouvard, Petit and Antoine Louis. The latter, in his Lettres contre la legiti
inconveniences resulting from the system
mité des naissances prétendues tardi'ues,
employed at that time.
raises his voice against the guilty indul
cine was, in point of fact, arrested in its
Forensic medi
gence of the courts who declared legiti
development by numerous causes which
mate births occurring after twelve or even thirteen months, basing their opin ion on a very old belief accepted not only by the people, but by the majority of
can
physicians.
It was also Louis who, by
his memoir read at the Academy of Sur
gery in 1764, contributed to rehabilitate the memory of Calas. In 1775, he was ordered to make an expert examination which saved the life of two accused per sons. The circumstances are briefly as follows. On June 14, 1775, an inhabit ant of Montbrison, by name Jean Chass agneux, fell and fractured his head. This fall was accidental, but public rumor made it appear that a crime had
be
classified
under two
heads,
namely, the imperfection of criminal
law and the bad organization of medi
cine at the time. The principle of the necessity of a con fession in order to pronounce a. sentence
in capital cases had been introduced a long time since with the ecclesiastic law, but it was only tutelary in appearance.
In point of fact, this confession was above all obtained by odious means,
namely, the preparatory, ordinary and extraordinary question. And still more, the trial was conducted behind closed doors and in many cases the accused
had no lawyer for his defense. The magis
been committed by the son and daughter in-law of the victim. The first physi
trates were possessed of full power, which if necessary could be given to extraordi
cian consulted concluded that the accused were guilty, but Louis was called in on the case and demonstrated beyond a doubt that the facts collected were in sufficient and that the examinations made would not allow one to pronounce judgment against the accused. Upon this report, Parliament dropped the pro
nary commissions.
cedure. Louis also demonstrated juridical errors in the cases of Montdailly, Syrven and Baronnet, in very important reports to the courts in which he unceasingly protested against the insufficiency of the medico-legal organization in France, also the incompetency of the experts selected by the magistrates.
Finally, under the
empire of the Criminal Ordinance of 1670, the most pitiless repression was exer cised to such an extent that the sentence
of death was rendered in one hundred and fifteen cases in that year, this often being accompanied by torture. On the other hand, on account of the defective organization of the medical corps foren sic medicine was in the hands of illite rate and insufficiently educated surgeons. The judges, not appreciating the im
portance of this science, were of the opin ion that a little practical knowledge of anatomy and surgery was sufficient to
make an expert. Occasionally they even made an appointment outside of the
