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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    cases under consideration; while, worst of all, the ends of justice are thwarted by ignoring the primary evidence. It is, therefore, not surprising that the most bitter heart-burnings have sprung from this source, or that numerous complaints on the subject have been addressed to the authorities. Neither is it surprising that single- handed practitioners have found it in vain to contend with a Lord- Advocate or the Secretary of State for the Home Department. But as the College of Surgeons lately appointed a committee to commu¬ nicate with the authorities, in order to get the rights of regularly- qualified members of the profession protected from unnecessary interference, there now seems to be a reasonable prospect of relief. INSTANCE OF IMPERFECT MEDICAL EVIDENCE NEARLY LEADING TO A FATAL ERROR. . % To the Bight Honourable Viscount Palmerston, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Home Department,— The petition of James Syme, humbly sheweth— 1. That your Lordship’s petitioner is Professor of Clinical Sur¬ gery in the University of Edinburgh, and senior acting surgeon of the Boyal Infirmary of Edinburgh. 2. That your petitioner, on the 9th of May, admitted into the Boyal Infirmary, under his care, a woman named Agnes Collison, on account of personal injuries, alleged to have been sustained in a drunken squabble with her husband. 3. That this patient was seized with what is called delirium tre¬ mens, and died on the 12th of May. 4. That on the 11th of July, George Collison, the husband of the deceased, was tried before the Court of Justiciary for murder, and capitally convicted. 5. That at the trial neither the petitioner nor any of the gentle¬ men connected with his department of the hospital were examined as to the cause of death. 6. That the medical men who were examined as to the morbid appearances found on dissection of the body, and as to the cause of death, had not seen the deceased during life. 7. That there was, therefore, a want of evidence as to the cause of death, in a case affording room for diversity of opinion as to