The general principles of clinical forensic medicine and the place of forensic medicine in a modern society.

Forensic Medicine, or as it is called on the continent of Europe, Legal Medicine, is the medical specialty which applies the principles and practice of Medicine to the elucidation of questions in judicial proceedings. If this definition is to be accepted, it follows that there must be as many specialties within the field of Forensic Medicine as there are in the entire field of general medical practice. However, there is a marked tendency to consider Forensic Medicine as being synonymous with Forensic Pathology, and this synonymity is only true if pathology is interpreted as meaning the study of abnormal conditions in their entirety and not merely in the findings after death. It is an anomaly to view the entire subject of Forensic Medicine from the autopsy table. It is certainly true that the morbid anatomist has the advantage over the clinician in that the former's patients are in no position to object to, or to hinder his detailed examination. Unfortunately the questions that require elucidation in judicial proceedings are not always concerned with death. Homicide and Suicide are but the stars of the medico-legal stage, and stars are few in number when compared with the enormous cast of "bit players" that go to make up the entire forensic picture. The supporting cast to the stars of Homicide and Suicide is vast. It encompasses such important matters as Rape, Drug Offences, Child Abuse, the Effects of Disease on Behaviour, Assessment of Accidental and Industrial Injury, Disputed Paternity, and Wounding. In all these cases the victim is not dead, and their injuries are the concern of the clinician and not the pathologist. In our modern and increasingly complex society the two professions of Law and Medicine can no longer continue in their tranquil and separate ways. The two are meeting more and more frequently, and there can be no doubt that every doctor will, at some time in his professional life, become involved in such a confrontation. Every doctor, in whatever field of medicine he is undertaking, is at risk of being called upon for a medical opinion, a medical report, and of being called to give evidence before a court on matters arising out of his practice. Frequently these confrontations occur at a very early stage in a doctor's career, and he is quite unaware of the basic requirements and principles of a medico-legal situation. The mauling that he receives at the hands of the lawyers under these circumstances is guaranteed to antagonise him to any future medico-legal involvement. The result of such antagon-