Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity, and Toxicology

This early discourse primarily on medical jurisprudence or forensic or legal medicine, makes for fascinating reading by students of law or medicine. Some of the subjects covered are: signs of death; autopsies; medico-legal definitions of wounds and blood stains; death from burns or suffocation; and rape. Separate, less detailed parts deal with insanity and toxicology.

Chapman’s book, first published in 1903, fits in with the current public fascination with forensic medicine. The popularity of such television shows as “CSI” and “ER” and the many best-selling books dealing with crimes solved by the collection and testing of physical evidence attests to the attraction of “medicine in relation to law,” as Chapman puts it.

Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity, and Toxicology offers an informative study on the commission of assaults and murders, their effects on victims, and their analysis to determine the cause and circumstances of death.

Attorneys, medical pathologists, coroners, and expert witnesses are among those who will find this book to be especially useful. However, when Chapman first wrote this book in the late 1800s, he intended it to be read by regular medical doctors (in 1903, there were not nearly so many medical specialists as there are now), since “every physician...is liable to be called upon at any time during the course of his professional career to give testimony in cases of rape, foeticide, infanticide, death from poison, and from other causes.”

A professor of medicine and medical jurisprudence, Chapman addresses violent crimes in a professional manner and covers the troubling details in a detached, scientific style that serves this subject matter well. He also discusses the subtle ways in which death can be caused and how this can test the detection abilities of forensic doctors. Part of the challenge is that murders are often committed by perpetrators who have a knowledge of poisons, anatomy, and biology that is nearly equal to that of a forensic doctor. Consequently, for many crimes the cause of death is difficult to determine and, even when it can be determined, it can be difficult to prove legally.

Medical Jurisprudence, Insanity, and Toxicology is especially useful when Chapman explains how to ascertain when death occurred and how it was caused. The author shows how evidence is gathered from the body of a victim and the surrounding area (i.e., the crime scene). These dual sources of evidence are correlated and current medical knowledge applied to create a hypothesis of the cause of death. The book is thorough in its coverage –symptoms of death from suffocation, drowning, burns and scalds, heat and cold, lightning, starvation, wounds, and gun shot are among those discussed by the author.

An autopsy can produce a wealth of evidence. One chapter in the book delves into the subject of wounds – the different types of wounds (incised, contused, and penetrating), what kinds of weapons inflict them, and how they cause injury and death. An analysis of blood stains also adds to the forensic doctor’s understanding of what happened. Chapman’s discussion of this subject includes methods of examining blood and the conditions influencing the coagulation of blood.

The author explains that what may appear suspicious to the untrained eye may, in fact, be benign. The liver of a newborn is one example. In the case of infanticide, a key issue is whether the child was born. Thus, the first step is to determine whether birth has occurred – i.e., defined by the author as simply when a fetus has been entirely expelled from the mother’s body. Chapman proceeds to describe some of the signs, such as condition of lungs, hair, and fingernails, that would verify that an infant had been “alive” and thus could have been a victim.

The size of the infant’s liver is another clue that can help answer this question. Contrary to what most persons would assume, says the author, “the liver of the fetus is larger than that of a recently born infant, and that of the infant larger than that of an eight or ten months old child.” Armed with this knowledge, the size of a child’s liver can play a role in determining if infanticide was committed and, if so, the age of the victim. However, Chapman also cautions that, “too much importance must not be attached to the size of the liver...since the difference in size...is only relative.”

In another section of the book, the author explains the effect on the human body of poisons, which can act locally or remotely or both. Arsenic, for example, affects the stomach locally and the brain remotely. Chapman further explains that, to be effective, most poisons “must be absorbed – pass into the blood.” However, there are also those poisons that act as a corrosive. Thus, the blood, brain, and viscera can all be examined for the presence of a poison. Chapman identifies the physical and psychological symptoms of poisoning and directs the reader where to look in the body for evidence that poison was ingested.

The advances in medicine and medical forensics have not supplanted the relevance or value of Chapman’s benchmark text. While new technology has been developed and testing procedures have become more refined, this book remains a seminal work on the application of forensic medicine in solving crimes and developing evidence for use in court.

Part I. -- Medical Jurisprudence.
	CHAPTER I. Importance of the Subject of Medical Jurisprudence -- Ordinary and Expert Witnesses -- The Coroner's Physician -- Relations of the Medical Profession to the Coroner in Cases of Sudden Death, etc.	13
	CHAPTER II. Signs of Death -- Cessation of Circulation and Respiration -- Loss of Sensibility of the Eyes to Light -- Ashy Pallor -- Loss of Heat -- Rigor Mortis -- Cadaveric Spasm -- Suggillation -- Putrefaction -- Conversion of Bodies into Adipocere -- Length of Time Elapsing Since Death -- Symptoms and Post-mortem Appearances of Death from Diseases of Brain, Heart, and Lungs -- Presumption of Death -- Presumption of Survivorship	21
	CHAPTER III. Autopsies -- Corpus Delicti -- Manner of Making Post-mortem Examinations in Medico-legal Cases -- Identification of the Dead -- Coroner's Inquest -- Conduct of the Medical Witness in Court -- Dying Declarations -- Wills	43
	CHAPTER IV. Medico-legal Definition of Wounds -- Comparison of Wounds with Weapons Inflicting Them and Clothes of Deceased -- Incised, Contused, Penetrating Wounds -- Suicidal, Homicidal, Accidental Wounds -- Gunshot Wounds -- Causes of Death from Wounds	62
	CHAPTER V. Blood-stains -- Chemical, Microscopic, Spectroscopic Methods of Investigation -- Coagulation of Blood -- Conditions Influencing Coagulation -- Amount of Blood in the Body	78
	CHAPTER VI. Death from Burns and Scalds -- Spontaneous Combustion -- Heat and Cold -- Lightning -- Starvation	103
	CHAPTER VII. Death from Suffocation -- By Strangulation -- By Hanging -- Drowning	114
	CHAPTER VIII. Rape upon Children -- Rape upon Adults -- Rape upon the Dead -- Rape by Females -- Unnatural Crimes	128
	CHAPTER IX. Signs of Pregnancy -- Uncertainty of Duration of Pregnancy -- Premature and Protracted Gestation -- Precocious Pregnancy -- Unconscious Pregnancy -- Pregnancy in the Dead -- Corpus Luteum	142
	CHAPTER X. Procreative Power in the Male and Female -- Impotence -- Sterility -- Grounds for Divorce -- Superfoetation -- Paternity and Affiliation -- Hermaphrodism -- Doubtful Sex -- Monsters -- Legitimacy -- Inheritance -- Viability -- Live Birth -- Exact Date of Birth -- Tenancy by Curtesy	154
	CHAPTER XI. Foeticide -- Proofs of Development of Embryo -- Formation of Placenta, of Moles -- Of the Means of Producing Foeticide -- Abortion from Natural Causes	172
	CHAPTER XII. Infanticide -- Importance of Corpus Delicti -- History of Infanticide -- Appearance of Infant Born Alive at Full Term -- Means of Determining whether Child Has Breathed -- Docimasia Pulmonum -- Objections to Hydrostatic Test -- Docimasia Circulationis -- Size of Liver and Contents of Stomach in New-born Child -- Examination of Mother -- Signs of Recent Delivery -- Means by which Infanticide is Committed	187
	CHAPTER XIII. Identity of the Living -- Feigned Bodily Diseases -- Hypnotism -- Life Insurance -- Medical Malpractice -- Medical Registration	200
Part II. -- Insanity.
	Classification of Varieties of Insanity -- Idiocy -- Mania -- Dementia -- Medico-legal Relations of Insanity -- Criminal Responsibility -- Medico-legal Terms in Insanity -- Feigned Mental Diseases	219
PART III. -- TOXICOLOGY
	CHAPTER I. Frequency of Death from Poisoning -- Definition of a Poison -- Mode of Action of Poisons -- Influence Exerted on Action of Poisons by Habit, Sleep, Disease, etc. -- Evidences of Poisoning Derived from Symptoms, Post-mortem Appearances, Chemical Analysis, Experiments upon Animals, Circumstantial Evidence -- Character of the Evidence the Chemical Expert may be Expected to Give in Cases of Poisoning	256
	CHAPTER II. Classification of Poisons -- Irritant Poisons -- Poisoning by Mineral Acids, by Alkalies and their Salts, Noxious Gases -- Poisoning by Phosphorus, Arsenic, Antimony, Mercury, Lead, Copper, etc. -- Poisoning by Oxalic Acid, Carbolic Acid, etc. -- Poisoning by Decomposed Food, Ptomaines, Neurotic Poisons -- Poisoning by Opium, Alcohol, Ether, Chloroform, Chloral, Nux Vomica, Strychnia, Belladonna, Stramonium, Tobacco, Lobelia, Hydrocyanic Acid	256