Review: Forensic Medicine
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3500800418 |
| Published date | 01 October 1935 |
| Date | 01 October 1935 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
FORENSIC
MEDICINE.
Atext-book for students and a guide for
the
practitioner. By
DOUGLAS
J. A.
KERR,
M.D., F.R.C.P.E.,
D.P.H.,
(Lecturer on Forensic Medicine in
the
Royal Colleges, Edinburgh).
Illustrated. Price
ISS.
net. (A. and C. Black,
Ltd.,
4-
Soho Square,
W. I.). 1935.
IF crime is an incident of the social state, every advance in material civiliza-
tion may be shadowed by a like advance in crime, for, as Clarence Darrow
has pointed out, concentration of both population and of wealth are potent
factors in
the
causation of crime.
Hence
the
ever-increasing importance of co-operation between
Law
and Medicine as set forth in
the
work before us. Among the many subjects
of interest to medical men are several of almost equal interest to
the
Police.
Foremost perhaps among these
are:
the action of alcohol on
human
beings, especially on motor drivers; and poisoning by gas, or by " exhaust
fumes"
of motor vehicles; each of which is discussed at some length
with much instructive detail including the injurious action of " exhaust
fumes"
on Police on " point
duty"
-an
argument for
the
substitution
of robots wherever circumstances allow.
Limitations as to co-operation between doctors and Police come in
for notice especially as regards abortion and infanticide, and
the
author
duly stresses
the
truth
that
no examination of
the
person can legally be
made without
the
owner's voluntary consent.
The
various modes of suffocation are well illustrated and
Dr.
Kerr
emphasizes
the
importance of persevering with Artificial Respiration in
certain cases, including arrest due to electric shock, for several hours.
The
chapters on wounds are also profusely illustrated. About aquarter
of
the
book is devoted to toxicology. A discussion of many, more or less
abnormal, mental states leads up to
the
question of criminal responsibility,
complete or partial as
the
case may be, with a full statement of
the
McNaughten rules and
Lord
Alness'
judgment
in Rex v. Savage.
The
author's judicious sympathy with offenders is shown by
such
remarks as "
the
modern outlook of a Court should be not punishment
...
but
adjustment";
and advocating probation rather
than
punishment
adds,
"though
this in
turn
can be overdone." Similarly distinguishing
between adolescent and adult sex offences he deprecates
the
use of
the
term
sex-pervert for any
but
chronic offenders.
The
legal procedures obtaining in England and in Scotland are
set forth with illustrations of death and lunacy certificates.
As a practical guide to action for students and practitioners, whether
in England or Scotland, this book will not easily be bettered.
508
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