in a situation to judge of the propriety of the act executed by them.

Of Marriage.-Few, if any, questions are now likely to arise in England, relating to the time and capacity of parties to marry. The subject of marriage involves that of impotence, which may be divided into absolute and perpetual, relative and accidental, or temporary, curable and incurable.

Pregnancy.-No one part of legal medicine involves so many important questions, as conception and childbirth; and none are more entangled with difficulties. These points, from their importance, call for the greatest care and circumspection. The signs of conception are divided into rational, particular, and sensible; and notwithstanding the advancement of science, the knowledge both of the one and the other of these signs, is sometimes involved in great difficulty, and frequent errors occur, in the judgment of the most experienced practitioners, even when women have no motive for concealment. The question of superfœtation, has given rise to much learned discussion: M. Foderé sides with Buffon, Haller, and the other advocates for it-and thinks it is of rare occurence, but not impossible. A case of a woman who had twins, one white and the other black, is mentioned by Buffon.

The symptoms of delivery, and how far they are to be distinguished from all other uterine excretions, form another important topic; as also the period of time after delivery, when the symptoms may be ascertained with certainty.-The capacity of women in labour to render proper assistance to the fœtus, so as to preserve life.-The determining whether the fœtus died before, or after delivery-upon this point much difference of opinion exists, and it is deserving of considerable attention, in order to enable the practitioner to do justice in giving his opinion.

Utero-gestation.-The next object of discussion, is the period of utero-gestation. In all other animals, the period of utero-gestation is very constant. Haller states, that the time of going with young is very regular in animals, but that it is not so regular in women. He gives references by which we read of a woman going ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and even fourteen months. Hippocrates says, that, "he can allow the

possibility of a child being born at ten months, but not later.” The former system of France allowed ten months. By the code Napoleon, the legitimacy of a child born 300 days after the dissolution of the marriage, may be questioned.

Dr. Clarke, in his Lectures, published under the title of London Practice of Midwifery, treats the possibility of the periods extending beyond the forty weeks with ridicule, though contrary to the opinion of many very distinguished practitioners, and indeed, as some have conceived, contrary to reason; for as the fœtus receives its nourishment from the mother, the probability is, that any very material alteration in her constitution, may cause the retardation, of the maturity of the infant. Besides, the fact of irregularity, in the time of utero-gestation, has been satisfactorily established, in the case of animals, when no motive for prejudice or concealment can arise. With regard to the legitimacy of children born in wedlock, only two reasons are allowed against the legitimacy of the child by the code Napoleon; viz. absence of the husband, or his being affected by some disease, by which it is to be inferred, it is impossible he should be the father of the child. Nonaccess is the only ground of disputing the legitimacy in England; but the rule of evidence in this respect has been of late very materially altered, by the opinions of the judges in the Banbury peerage, who have, it is conceived, introduced an anomalous division respecting the evidence of access, dividing it into access, and generative access; so that if this distinction be hereafter recognised, much uncertainty may be introduced respecting the title and succession to property, and a new and difficult subject will demand the attention of the medical student.

In discussing the time when the fœtus may be supposed to be perfect, the faculty of Leipsic, with great complaisance, determined that a child, born five months and eight days after the return of the husband, might be considered as legitimate, and that children at five months, were often perfect and healthy. Valentini, who reports this decision, is also gallant enough to concur in it.

By the English laws, an husband is entitled to a life interest in the estate of his wife, if he have a child born alive; and

the expression of the old law is, if the child should be heard to cry. Some cases, where children have been born alive, but have not uttered any cry, though they have breathed for a continued period, have caused much learned discussion; and a case in 1806, in the Exchequer, (where the lips of an infant had moved after birth, but no cry was heard,) gave rise to much curious evidence, particularly by Dr. Denman, who was of opinion, that the motion of the lips immediately after birth, was not a decisive proof of the presence of the vital principle, and distinguished between uterine and exterior life, the latter being called into action by the operation of the air on the lungs. Each case of this nature in England is determined by a jury, on its particular circumstances: according to the civil code, idem est non nasci, et non posse vivere.

Till the relaxation of the severity of the laws in this country relating to infanticide, many unfortunate mothers suffered death for crimes they never committed. Prejudice on the part of the juries, and ignorance on that of the practitioners, seem to have conspired to destroy the wretched mother. Dr. William Hunter, in his able paper on Infanticide, was one of the first who had the credit of turning the public attention to this subject. No one has written more eloquently in favour of the female character; and from the opportunities of observation, which his extensive practice afforded him, there is no one whose opinion is entitled to higher respect. Even now, however, it may be doubted, whether there are not some who suffer unjustly, when the incapacity of the mother to assist her infant in a concealed delivery, the probable accidents arising from position, fainting, and delirium, are considered: the horror excited by the idea of a mother's murdering her offspring, may still prevent mankind from judging of the case of the infanticide with impartiality; added to this, the natural appearances have not unfrequently been attributed to violence; and a case has been noticed as having occurred a few years ago, where the sutures and fontenelle were mistaken by an ignorant practitioner, for fractures of the skull. That to form an opinion, which is to decide the fate of a fellow being, on a subject so difficult, and presenting so extensive a field for observation, requires the narrowest scrutiny and attention, need not be noVOL. VIII. No. 29.

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ticed; and the probable improvements in our skill respecting these matters, may be easily imagined, when it is considered, how short time since, the lungs, swimming in water, was considered as decisive evidence that the fœtus had inspired air, and which is now admitted to afford, at best, but a very uncertain criterion of the existence of extra-uterine vitality.

The cases of monstrous births have seldom given rise to legal discussion in this country, though the works of foreign writers abound with descriptions of them.

The next class of cases which occur, are, the appearances of death in bodies, and whether the death was natural or violent, as in the case of strangulation, suffocation, drowning, &c. from blows and wounds, &c. and the determining whether particular wounds are to be considered as mortal; after these, come rape, and feigned diseases, the most frequent of which are, epilepsy, insanity, ulcers, and blindness, &c.

Remarks on Arsenic, considered as a Poison and a Medicine; to which are added, five cases of recovery from the poisonous effects of arsenic. Together with the tests so successfully employed for detecting the white metallic oxide; in which those satisfactory methods, peculiar to Mr. Hume, were principally adopted, confirmed, and compared with others formerly in use. By JOHN MARSHALL, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and Apothecary to his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester's Household, &c. &c. [From the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, for October, 1817.]

MR. TURNER, Mr. Robert T. and Mrs. R. T. in the 7th month of pregnancy, partook at dinner, on Tuesday, March 21, 1815, about 4 P. M., of some yeast dumplings. Mr. R. Turner ate a dumpling and a half. They seem not to have been sensible of any thing unusual in the dumplings, but soon became ill. We are told, that, at the commencement of the operation of the arsenic on Mr. R. T. his father was alarmed at the alteration in his appearance; the countenance was of a

complete yellow cast, and the features altered and contracted, so as to resemble an aged man. Soon after dinner, a medical gentleman, Mr. Ogilvy, was sent for, who administered to each of them a full dose of castor oil, and gave sugar and water plentifully, occasionally mixed with milk. We are not informed when the cook-maid, Eliza Fenning, became ill, or whether she had eaten of the yeast dumplings.

Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Turner's apprentice, dined on beefsteakpye at two o'clock. About an hour and a half after finishing his dinner, he ate about the size of a walnut only of the remains of the yeast dumplings, and would have eaten more, but was forbid by the cook-maid. In almost an hour and a half, he became sick, and vomited twice, then felt quite well, and went, on foot, for Mrs. Turner senior, from Chancery-Lane to Vauxhall, a distance of three or four miles: and not until he arrived there was he in the least aware of being poisoned; but he then became seriously ill, with an excruciating pain and a burning heat in the stomach, and felt so much alarmed, that he thought he would have died. As soon as seated in the coach to return, he began to vomit, and continued to do so, almost without intermission, the whole of the way home.

About half past eight, the patients were seen by Mr. Marshall, who thus describes the state in which he found them:

"On entering the house I first saw Eliza Fenning, the cook, lying on the stairs, apparently in great agony, and complaining of a burning pain in the stomach, with violent reaching, headach, and great thirst. I directed her to drink some milk and water, and to be immediately conveyed to her bed; at the same time observing, that I would see her again as soon as possible, after having visited the rest of the family, who, I was then informed in the most anxious manner, by Mrs. Turner senior, 'were all four of them much worse than the cook.' My attention was then directed to Mr. Robert Turner, who appeared to be nearly in articulo mortis; his face, which had been swol. len, having assumed the appearance of the true facies hippocratica, my apprehensions were considerable for his preservation. On examining the contents of the utensils in which he had vomited, a fluid was perceived of a yellowish and greenish colour, and in two of them stercoraceous matter; the pulse was