Illustrations of medical evidence and trial by jury in Scotland.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of medical evidence and trial by jury in Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ascertain if the boy was in danger, and if he was in a fit state to be examined. I was of opinion that his life was m danger, and t at his mind at that time was in a fit state to enable him to undergo an examination. The expression in my certificate, “ I this day ex¬ amined Patrick Clark,” has reference to the object which alone 1 had in view-; and if I had been making a medical report upon the case, with a particular account of the injury, the manner in which the fracture was supposed to be occasioned,. and the treatment, 1 would then have made a very different inquiry into the case. In such a case, and for the purpose of granting this certificate for the examination of Patrick Clark, if Dr Dobie had been present at the first, and given me all the information that was necessary, 1 should have considered that I had sufficiently examined Clark for the pur¬ pose of that certificate, unless his appearance seemed to contradict the doctor altogether. I should have been a little more particular in the constitutional disturbance; I should have observed the breathing, etc. Generally speaking, I should have considered the statement of an intelligent surgeon perfectly sufficient for my object, alonn with the personal examination I took, the statements of the patient himself, and of the medical attendant. I understood before I went there that it was under consideration to amputate the limb. In granting the certificate that he was in danger, and fit to be ex¬ amined, I had in view all the risks arising from amputation, and I apprehended that the judicial examination might be lost if not taken before amputation. I heard some time afterwards, but I don’t re¬ member the time, that the limb was not to be amputated. I learned afterwards, not of my own knowledge, that he was examined by the Sheriff. Upon this certificate that his life was in danger, and that he was in a state to undergo this examination, nothing whatever was to follow, except simply that the Sheriff, if he chose, might take the boy’s declaration. I gave that certificate to the Superin¬ tendent of Police, and he forwarded it to the Piscal. Dr Dobie, examined by the Dean of Faculty. I am now resi¬ dent at Chester. I was at one time in the Boyal Infirmary here. Part of that time I was assistant to Professor Syme ; that was from February 1852 to September 1853. I remember, in the spring of 1853, a boy named Clark being brought to the Infirmary. He had sustained a fracture of the tibia of the left leg, with a large lacer¬ ated wound. The fibula was not broken; it was a compound frac¬ ture. Pie was brought to the Infirmary on Thursday the 17th