Description

The physician and author John Ayrton Paris (1785-1856), several of whose other medical and popular works have been reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, and his co-author J. S. M. Fonblanque (1787-1865), barrister and administrator, published this three-volume work in 1823. It remained almost the only work on the topic of medical jurisprudence for many years. The authors define the term as 'a science by which medicine, and its collateral branches, are made subservient to the construction, elucidation, and administration of the laws; and to the preservation of public health'. An overview of the professional medical colleges and their powers and privileges is followed by a detailed examination of the various circumstances in which medical evidence may be required in court, a 'synopsis of the objects of inquiry in cases of sudden death', an appendix presenting many historical cases, and an index.