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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    most justifiably on what Dr Dobie told him. II he meant to say that lie expressed an opinion when he had not, by personal inspec¬ tion, grounds for that opinion, that would have been a very ditteren imputation indeed. That would have been an imputation which Mr Glover might have thought treated him with very little respect, but with which he would hardly have come into Court. 1 must say, however, this does not seem to me a very serious an aggravated case of slander, and accordingly the Dean stated that probably it would not have been brought before you ut 01 w 1 a followed, and they could not bring the second matter forward with¬ out the first. The second matter is more serious. Here the de¬ fender undertakes to prove that the pursuer granted a certificate, on soul and conscience, that he had examined a patient, whom, in point of fact, he had never examined. Now, gentlemen, looking to t ie nature of the certificate, the inquiries made by Mr Glover, and t le evidence given by Dr Dobie, you will say whether you can find 1 true that the certificate was false, in so far as in it Mr Glover ex¬ pressed an opinion on matters on which he had no materials for forming an opinion at all, and as to which he had not the means of knowing anything whatever. That is the point for your considera¬ tion under the first issue. Then, as I have said, the second matter comes to be a good deal stronger. In that second issue, which con¬ tains the letter addressed to the Commissioners of Police, and pub¬ lished in the Medical Journal, Professor Syme says ‘“ Indeed, un¬ less able to prove that Mr Glover did not examine the patient, whom he has declared, ‘ on soul and conscience,’ that he did carefully ex¬ amine ”_It is most unfortunate for Mr Syme that he will never keep to the terms either of the certificate or of Mr Glover’s pub- lishecl letter_u I should ere now have tendered my resignation, unti assured against a repetition of the alleged outrage , and the com plaint there is that the defender falsely and calumniously asserted of the pursuer, that he had falsely certified, on soul and conscience, that he had carefully examined a patient whom, in point of fact, he had never examined. Now the certificate, you will obseive, bears nothin^ about careful examination ; if it bad done so, that wou c have given it a character considerably different in point of impoit- ance. The object, however, of Mr Glover’s examination.was only to satisfy his mind on the two points already stated; and this did not require nor infer a careful examination of the limb. Indeed, o what use would that have been 1 If danger arose from the injury,