The History of Forensic Medicine make their report in the form prescribed for experts. If she is found pregnant, execution will be deferred until after
delivery."
In 1692, a regulation was
issued describing the form to be given to the reports. For autopsies, it ordered a
delayof twenty-four hours in winter and twelve hours in summer. The report should indicate the number, direction and depth of the wounds, likewise their
breadth, precise location and their lethal ity; the expert was also instructed to state with what instrument or arms the wounds had been inflicted, and whether or not the victim would remain a cripple from the efiect of the wounds, or, on the other hand, how long it would take for a cure to be complete. From a small but interesting work
entitled Doctrine
des
Rapports,
by
Nicholas de Blégny, Surgeon to Mon sieur, I will quote some supplementary information relating to the organization of the medico-judiciary personnel of the seventeenth century : Sworn surgeons have been appointed in order to prevent the abuse which might accrue if all surgeons were allowed to make reports in Justice; because the incapacity of some and the infidelity of others would be powerful obstacles totruth. . . . There are two sworn experts in every city possessing courts bishopric . . . and one in all the other towns or places. They bear the title of ordi nary oouncilor physicians to the King, or sworn surgeons. They take oath before the officers of the court; they conjointly or sepa rately occupy themselves with the reports to the exclusion of all other masters. The judges cannot receive any other report unless signed by them. They are charged with the inspec tion of all the surgeons of the cities in which they reside and of the cities or places belong
ing to their district.
They examine the candi
dates for the mastership in surgery and the midwives and give them their diplomas.
687
of the parties to the litigation by any surgeon who had been sworn; (2) provi
sional reports, made upon the demand of the judge by the sworn surgeons of the jurisdiction in which the trial took place; (3) mixed reports which were de
livered on the simple requisition of the parties to litigation by sworn surgeons alone. Besides the above reports, experts were also obliged to make two other types of juridical papers, namely, the
essoin and estimates.
There were three
types of essoins: (l) the ecclesiastical essoin, which was an exemption of con ventual and monastic vows; (2) the political essoin, which related to the
health of soldiers and those in service of the royal houses; (3) the juridical
essoin, which was required in order to postpone a trial when one of the parties could not appear on account of illness. The report of estimation was the valua tion of the cost of operations and dress ings when this cost was contested by the patient.
I have now reviewed the principal medico-legal ordinances promulgated in Europe during the Renaissance and the seventeenth century, and will now ex
amine what scientific occurrences took place relative to forensic medicine during
this period. In the first place, the first work dealing with the subject appeared in 1575. The father of modern sur gery, Ambroise Paré, is the author, and
from this fact he should also be called the father of Legal Medicine. His writ ings on the subject are represented by a few pages which precede the twenty seventh book of his surgical works. They represent the first steps in medico-legal
science.
Paré says that the young sur
geon should be instructed in the art of
were of three kinds: (1) accusation re
making out a report, when he shall be called upon by the courts, either on the
ports, delivered upon a simple request
death of the injured, resulting impo
The reports made out by the experts
