Valedictory Address

First, As to the Teaching of Medical Jurisprudence. It has often struck me with surprise that so few of the many lecturers on this important subject discharge the duties of Surgeon of Police, and thereby enable themselves to acquire a practical acquaintance with the many forms of violent death, not to speak of the opportunities afforded by that position of giving evidence in courts of law, and of becoming familiar with medico-legal questions of all kinds. It is therefore not to be wondered at that medical jurisprudence is not regarded with interest by the student while preparing to undergo his final trials, and that when he settles down in practice he, as a rule, eschews all cases which may necessitate his appearance in the witness-box. This indifference on the part of the student and practitioner helps to account for the general unsatisfactory nature of medical testimony on trials, and for the continuance of that distrust by the legal profession of medical opinion in a court of