Review: A Text Book of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3100400224 |
| Published date | 01 April 1931 |
| Date | 01 April 1931 |
316
THE POLICE JOURNAL
AN ELEMENTARY
TEXT
BOOK OF
THE
LAWS OF
ENGLAND.
By His Honour
JUDGE
RUEGG,
K.C. (Revised.) Second Edition.
7s. 6d. net. (Geo. Allen &Unwin, Ltd.),
As explained by the learned author in his preface, the object of this book
(which was first published in 1920) is to enable the ordinary citizen to acquire
some familiarity with the rudiments of the laws of his own country and the
courts and persons by whom these laws are declared and administered.
The
leading principles of law are explained in elementary language so as to make
it suitable for use in schools and thus to fill what the author rightly describes
as a ' glaring hiatus in English education.'
As every lawyer knows, simplicity and brevity in any summary of the
law is too often secured at the cost of accuracy.
The
task accomplished with
success in this work could only have been achieved by one whose grasp of
legal principles is the result of life-long practical experience. Moreover,
Judge Ruegg has avoided giving us a colourless statement of the dry bones
of the law.
It
contains much interesting and entertaining historical matter,
so that the ordinary citizen may know not only what the law is but how it
grew into its present state. Our only regret is that more space has not been
given to the summary of the criminal law in Chapter XIX.
We share with Judge Ruegg the hope that this book may do something
to remove the popular prejudice against lawyers, due largely to ignorance of
the law itself. As he says, ' the ordinary layman generally has a vague idea
that the lawyer is a necessary nuisance and the law a mass of myriad pre-
cedents
...
it is often said that the lawyer as such is not popular in this
country, though like the policeman he is always eagerly called for when
difficulties arise.'
A
TEXT
BOOK OF
MEDICAL
JURISPRUDENCE
AND
TOXI-
COLOGY. By
JOHN
GLAISTER,
M.D., D.P.H., F.R.S.E., and
JOHN
GLAISTER,
jun., M.D., D.Sc. 5th edition. 1931. 30s. (E. &S.
Livingstone, Edinburgh.)
No practitioner can afford to be ignorant of the elements of medical juris-
prudence, for any doctor may be called upon to act in an emergency, in the
interests ofjusticeor mercy. And a good deal is expected nowadaysof police
officers (especially station sergeants) in dealing, for instance, with cases of
impaired sensibility or persons in a state of excitement which may, or may
not, be due to alcoholic indulgence.
At such times many of us might regret not having bettered our acquain-
tance with this work of the Professors Glaister.
Few more awkward problems have to be tackled to-day by police con-
stables, surgeons, and magistrates than those of the mental condition of
motor drivers involved in serious accidents on the road.
The
authors have devoted considerable space to these matters. They
warn us against hasty diagnosis, especially of alcoholism, and in any case,
against assuming that nothing else is the matter with the patient.
They give a detailed account of the very variable signs of intoxication,
based on their own observation, which is all the more worthy of study in that
it does not altogether tally with those given in leading text-books on First Aid.
Along with alcoholism signs of apoplexy and brain injury are discussed,
but
one here looks in vain for any reference to Mr. Wilfred Trotter's illumi-
nating contributions on this subject.'
Our duties in cases of personal injury, and in those open to suspicion
1Choyce's Syst. Surgi, vol.
iii.
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