Forensic Medicine
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3801100407 |
| Author | Douglas Kerr |
| Date | 01 October 1938 |
| Published date | 01 October 1938 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Forensic Medicine
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By
DR.
DOUGLAS
KERR, M.D., D.P.H., F.R.C.P.
Casualty Police
Surgeon
and
Medical Referee to
the
Corporation of
the
City
of
Edinburgh,
and
Lecturer
on Forensic Medicine in
the
School of Medicine of
the
Royal Colleges,
Edinburgh.
IT
is impossible to cover the whole subject of Forensic
Medicine in a few lectures, so I am going to indicate to you,
first of all, points that are met with in the daily work of a
Police officer, especially a Police officer investigating deaths,
which, I have found, are frequently misunderstood, and which
give rise to erroneous conclusions. Then, secondly, under
what circumstances a doctor can help you. And, thirdly,
what a medical specialist requires from the Police when he is
called to a case.
There
is a great deal that you can tell us,
some of which is absolutely essential if we are to arrive at
correct deductions.
The
whole matter is one of collaboration;
however certain medical and scientific evidence may be, it is
only supplementary to, and can never replace, the routine
police enquiries which must be made in every case, and which
are the foundation of all criminal investigation.
I.
SUDDEN DEATH
All death is sudden,
but"
sudden
death"
is the name given
to death which is not preceded, or is only preceded for a very
short time, by morbid symptoms, that is, any indications of
illness.
"Unexpected
death"
is perhaps abetter name,
because the possibility of a person dying suddenly is often
quite well realised. These sudden deaths frequently give rise
to suspicion and require investigation, because a frequent
terminal act before death is vomiting, and when a person is
found lying dead with evidence that he has
just
vomited, the
neighbours immediately think of poisoning.
• An abridged
report
of
four
lectures on Forensic Medicine given to
the
Advanced Course for
Senior
Scottish Police Officers at
Edinburgh.
Here
printed
by permission of
H.M.
Secretaryof
State
for Scotland
and
of W. B. R.
Morren,
Esq.,
Chief
Constable of
Edinburgh.
454
FORENSIC
MEDICINE
455
No one dies suddenly, apart from violence, unless there is
some disease of the organs. There must be some disease,
perhaps going on for a long time in an insidious manner,
yet when the person has died and you question the relatives,
they say the deceased never had a day's illness in his life.
In
fact, this morning about
12
o'clock, I visited a house and saw
the brother of a woman who had died suddenly. Asked if she
had been complaining, he said she had never had a day's
illness in her life. On enquiring if she were ever short of
breath, he said
"Yes.
She used to get short of breath."
"What about winter
time-a
little
bronchitis?"
" Yes. She
had bronchitis all the winter," and so you find by enquiries
atrain of symptoms which clearly indicates the presence of
disease.
The
presence of heart disease in this case was clearly
brought out by enquiries,
but
the patient and the relatives had
paid no attention to it, and had consulted no doctor before
death.
Such sudden death as apoplexy-sometimes called a
" shock " or a " stroke
"-is
due to the bursting of a blood
vessel in the brain.
If
a doctor is called when the patient is
still alive he has no difficulty in diagnosing the case. He sees
various symptoms of paralysis. He sees this is a case of apo-
plexy and there is no need for any investigation,
but
if the
doctor does not arrive till after death there are no symptoms.
He asks relatives about the case,
but
he does not know of his
own knowledge, and so there has to be an investigation into
the cause of death. This investigation, as you know, is carried
out by the Coroner in England and the Procurator Fiscal in
Scotland.
When a doctor makes a post-mortem in such cases, as is
often necessary, his business is to exclude death from
violence and death from poisoning.
In
most cases he can tell
you the cause of death;
but
there are a number of cases, and
it is well that you should realise the fact, where, however com-
petent the medical man, however great experience of sudden
deaths he may have, however carefully he makes the examina-
tion, there may be nothing which would justify him in deducing
the cause of death from the body alone.
It
is here that your
investigation is of extraordinary value in indicating the manner
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