Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/47

 objects of inquiry into four general heads, and these again he sub-divides into specific subjects. Under the first head he includes the physical geography of the place to be described, comprising notices on its botany, mineralogy, and natural history. The second head he refers to the inhabitants, including an account of their food, habitations, customs, &c. Under the third head are classed such subjects of inquiry as are connected with diseases, either endemic, epidemic, or sporadic, which appear under the form of epizootics amongst the lower animals, or which affect the products of vegetation. To the fourth head are referred miscellaneous objects of inquiry, or such as could not be arranged under any of the preceding.

The advancement of medico-legal science, to which it is proposed that the labours of the Association shall be directed, is of the highest importance. The superiority of our continental brethren over British medical men, in their knowledge of forensic medicine, has been long painfully felt by those who are emulous of their country's fame. Dr. Christison, an eminent authority on this question, says, " I have often had occasion to regret that so little attention has been paid in this country, to preserving, in sources accessible to medical men, the interesting medico-legal inquiries which are annually made throughout Britain. The want of authentic documents, embracing the medical facts and disquisitions which have been brought forward on trials in our own country, has obliged our medico-legal authors to illustrate the doctrines they have laid down, by referring to the proceedings in foreign