A medico-legal essay on infanticide : translated from the author's Latin inaugural dissertation, composed on that subject, and submitted to the Faculty of Medicine in Edinburgh, preparatory to receiving the degree of M.D. in the present year / by Robert Arrowsmith.

  • Arrowsmith, Robert.
Date:
1828
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A medico-legal essay on infanticide : translated from the author's Latin inaugural dissertation, composed on that subject, and submitted to the Faculty of Medicine in Edinburgh, preparatory to receiving the degree of M.D. in the present year / by Robert Arrowsmith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/94 (page 11)
    the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal,* the one born at six months and a half, and the other at six months. Belloc^ also relates an instance of a decisive nature. The conclusion of Professor Christison is, “ that at six months it is highly probable that it cannot live.”® But at whatever period a child can be born living, it may become, of course, the subject of Infanticide. Smith* says, that before the end of the fifth month no foetus can be born alive. And that, therefore, it is of the highest importance to in- quire if we can verify the age of the foetus. Pro- fessor Monro has the same opinion.® “ Experience,” says he, “ has shown, that children born before the fifth month are not born alive.” And hence it follows, that the anatomical characters of the foetus, from the termination of the 5th month, are principally interesting in this view. Several anatomical descriptions of the progres- sive developement of the foetus in utero, are to be met with in medical writings. But the best general account with relation to Medical Jurisprudence, is 1 Vol. xiii. 249, 526. 2 Cours de Medecine Legale, Paris, 1811, 8fo. p. 78. ® MS. notes of Dr Christison’s Lectures. Diet, de Md- decine. Oeuf Humaine. Par C. P. Olivier. “ A six mois.. le foetus pouvrait vivre alors quelques heures hors de I’uterus.” Forensic Medicine, p. 312. * Elements of Anatomy, 2. 615,