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The Green Bag

was so greatly credited in popular imagi nation and which was even accepted for

We should also mention Lafosse, known by his critical examination of the Calas case, which resulted in a friend

a certain time by scientists. Then Lorry discusses the questions of survival.

ship between himself and Voltaire; and Chaussier, who in 1783, in a ‘memoir

In 1765, tardy birth was the object

which has remained celebrated, shows the great importance of legal medicine and draws attention of the courts to the

spontaneous combustion, a theory which

of very bitter discussion among Bertin, Lebas, Bouvard, Petit and Antoine Louis. The latter, in his Lettres contre la legiti

inconveniences resulting from the system

mité des naissances prétendues tardi'ues,

employed at that time.

raises his voice against the guilty indul

cine was, in point of fact, arrested in its

Forensic medi

gence of the courts who declared legiti

development by numerous causes which

mate births occurring after twelve or even thirteen months, basing their opin ion on a very old belief accepted not only by the people, but by the majority of

can

physicians.

It was also Louis who, by

his memoir read at the Academy of Sur

gery in 1764, contributed to rehabilitate the memory of Calas. In 1775, he was ordered to make an expert examination which saved the life of two accused per sons. The circumstances are brieﬂy as follows. On June 14, 1775, an inhabit ant of Montbrison, by name Jean Chass agneux, fell and fractured his head. This fall was accidental, but public rumor made it appear that a crime had

be

classiﬁed

under two

heads,

namely, the imperfection of criminal

law and the bad organization of medi

cine at the time. The principle of the necessity of a con fession in order to pronounce a. sentence

in capital cases had been introduced a long time since with the ecclesiastic law, but it was only tutelary in appearance.

In point of fact, this confession was above all obtained by odious means,

namely, the preparatory, ordinary and extraordinary question. And still more, the trial was conducted behind closed doors and in many cases the accused

had no lawyer for his defense. The magis

been committed by the son and daughter in-law of the victim. The ﬁrst physi

trates were possessed of full power, which if necessary could be given to extraordi

cian consulted concluded that the accused were guilty, but Louis was called in on the case and demonstrated beyond a doubt that the facts collected were in sufficient and that the examinations made would not allow one to pronounce judgment against the accused. Upon this report, Parliament dropped the pro

nary commissions.

cedure. Louis also demonstrated juridical errors in the cases of Montdailly, Syrven and Baronnet, in very important reports to the courts in which he unceasingly protested against the insufficiency of the medico-legal organization in France, also the incompetency of the experts selected by the magistrates.

Finally, under the

empire of the Criminal Ordinance of 1670, the most pitiless repression was exer cised to such an extent that the sentence

of death was rendered in one hundred and ﬁfteen cases in that year, this often being accompanied by torture. On the other hand, on account of the defective organization of the medical corps foren sic medicine was in the hands of illite rate and insufficiently educated surgeons. The judges, not appreciating the im

portance of this science, were of the opin ion that a little practical knowledge of anatomy and surgery was sufficient to

make an expert. Occasionally they even made an appointment outside of the