Page:Introductory lecture on medical jurisprudence - delivered in the theatre of the Royal Dublin Society, on Saturday, the 16th November, 1839 (IA b21916512).pdf/5

 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE

ON

,

been often asked since these lectures were announced, what was the meaning of this Course of Medical Jurisprudence, and I have no doubt there are many here to day, who have felt much surprise at finding a Doctor of Medicine appear as a teacher in a School of Law. It is not, however, law I come to teach. Of it I know but little; no more indeed than every medical practitioner ought to be acquainted with. The object of this Course of Lectures is to communicate such a knowledge of medicine, and its collateral sciences, as is absolutely necessary in the practice of your profession. Questions of the highest interest, in a social point of view, are constantly occurring in our various courts of justice, some affecting the rights of property, some the health and comforts of whole communities, and some the character, the liberty, or the lives of individuals, the determination of which depends almost entirely on evidence derived from the medical sciences. But this, like all evidence, and far more indeed than any other species of evidence, is open to fallacy—partly from the obscure and uncertain nature of the sciences themselves—partly from the carelessness, the incapacity, the ignorance, or the prejudices of the medical witness. It is the duty, as well as the interest of the barrister, to be aware of those sources of error, and prepared when they occur to detect and lay them bare. But if he be not familiar with the grounds on which this evidence rests, and