Recent Book: Courtroom Medicine
| Published date | 01 April 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5903200212 |
| Date | 01 April 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
(1955) which deals with the subject of confessions
and
the
"American
method"
of taking them. Any British police officer would do well to
read and ponder.
The
second passage is an
extract
from
"Penology
could be practical" by
Tom
Runyon, aconvict serving a life sentence, who
died in Iowa State Prison in 1957.
The
incidence of long terms of imprison-
ment
in the U.S. sometimes awarded on a cumulative system with regard to
prior
sentences
for
comparatively minor sentences is
not
one
of
the best
features of American Justice.
Those
interested in penal
reform
and con-
cerned
about
the helpless and soul-destroying
outlook
which long terms of
imprisonment can generate will profit
from
reading this. Indeed, the chap-
ters devoted to prisons, prison sentences, probation, parole and the release
of innocent men are of particular interest at the moment, because of
the
Government's White
Paper
"Penal
Practice in a Changing Society."
The
Glossary is a curious addition. Some worthwhile and interesting
words and their meanings are included, with the addition of such day-to-
day words as
"Anno
Domini," "agree," "bring,"
"favor,"
"Sunday,"
and
"violence"-the
use of force! C.G.B.
MARSHALL
HOUTS
(Editor): Courtroom Medicine. Blackwell Scientific
Publications. £5 5s. Od.
CIVIL
LITIGATION
in America is a vast province in which
the
lawyer fre-
quently finds himself
lost
in the technicalities of medicine or science,
and
there
have come into being in the last few years several books designed to
acquaint the attorney with a working knowledge of basic facts in medicine.
Rowland Long's little gem The Physician and the Law and the series of
Western Reserve University publications
under
the editorship of Oliver
Schroeder entitled Physician in the Courtroom have
done
much to
smooth
out
the difficulties between lawyer and doctor. This new book, published
with all the polish
that
one has come to expect of Charles Thomas, its
American publisher, is, as the jacket indicates
"a
really big
book
of over
385.000 words
...
247 selected illustrations
and
13 tables
...
designed to
permit
lawyers to recognise medico-legal problems and discuss them intelli-
gently with their chosen experts."
This
is, indeed a"King-size"
Courtroom
Medicine, and
for
those who
can
afford the staggering price of well pro-
duced technical books
from
America it will undoubtedly satisfy
most
demands.
It
is the first illustrated
book
of its kind and this alone will
encourage lawyers to use it.
Multiple authorship always introduces
the
unevenness of
treatment
and
writing
that
demands strong editorship,
and
the well known lawyer of
the
"Court of the Last Resort," Marshall Houts, has seen to it
that
there is very
little overlap in subjects
and
quite fair general uniformity of treatment.
Though
the writing is designed to give "basic orientation" which would
permit the lawyer to handle medical problems more surely, the writers
of
some sections have naturally allowed enthusiasm for their own subject to
run
away with
them:
26 full pages on the history, development
and
technology of radiation is too big a pill
for
the lawyer faced with a fall-out
or leukaemia
case-and,
at the
other
extreme, amiserable 3+ pages on
the
whole subject
of
toxicology (with a
table
for
symptom diagnosis) gives
little help in a case
of
industrial poisoning.
There
are good
sections-on
head injury, hernia, cancer genesis,
back
injuries, and
poor
ones on obstetric
problems, anaesthesia and non-traumatic industrial hazards.
The
editor
admits gaps in the completion of the work,
and
the reader will, in fact,
look
in vain for a section on drunkenness, electrical injury, tuberculosis,
the general premises of Ewing's postulates, hysteria and
other
nervous
afflictions, to
name
but
a few
common
litigation problems.
The
demand for such a
book
is obvious, and this substantial volume goes
along way to satisfy the lawyers' ordinary needs.
There
is an excellent
technical dictionary which might well become aseparate publication,
and
an index which could be improved for the non-medical reader by better
cross-references
and
more alternate terminology.
The
next edition will un-
doubtedly
meet
many
of these minor criticisms of this generally welcome
book.
April-June
1959
K.S.
137
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