A COMMENTARY
UPON THE
PRECEDING OBJECTS OF INQUIRY:
With a view to appreciate and explain the relative importance of each, in enabling the Medical Inquirer and Jurist, to arrive at just conclusions, in cases of complicated doubt and difficulty.
CASE I.
THE PATIENT IS LIVING, AND MEDICAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED.
This is the least complicated case that can occur; the medical inquirer has not only the advantage of the patient's testimony, but that also of his own observations upon the symptoms and circumstances of the case. We have already stated that the declaration of a person, made under an apprehended pending dissolution, is by the law of this realm considered tantamount to an oath, (see vol. i. p. 165), and we have also stated what it becomes our duty to repeat in this place, that in recording such testimony, we must be prepared to combat various errors and prejudices: we do not mean to deny that the awful situation in which the patient is placed will not, in general, secure us against any wilful misrepresenta-
