In the United States, the first lecturer in forensic medicine was Dr. J. S. Stringham, who lectured in New York beginning in about 1804.12 In 1813, the first chair of medical jurisprudence was established by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York and occupied by the same Dr. Stringham. In 1815, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York appointed Dr. T. R. Beck professor of the Institutes of Medicine and lecturer in medical jurisprudence.13 In the same year, the Department of Medicine at Harvard University appointed Dr.
Walter Channing professor of midwives.14 From World War II to the late 1960s, The field of forensic medicine was defined by law courses that dealt almost exclusively with forensic psychiatry and pathology and were rightly considered advanced courses in criminal law. In the late 1960s, some law and medical courses began to focus on broader medico-legal issues encountered in the courtroom, including the assessment of disabilities and medical malpractice. These courses were rightly considered advanced damages or courses of trial exercises.10 Labeo is said to have written 400 books, including commentaries on the Law of the Twelve Tables, Praetorian Edicts, and Papal Law, collections of legal affairs (Epistulae and Responsa), and Pithana, a collection of definitions and axiomatic legal statements. He was particularly interested in dialectics and language as an aid to legal presentation. His progressive vision and bold innovations are confirmed in preserved fragments of his works and in the numerous quotations and annotations thereof by later Roman jurists. Labeos Libri posteriores, a systematic representation of Roman law, is so named because it was published after his death. This posthumous publication is indicative of the high esteem in which he was held, and it is the only case of its kind in Roman legal history. Labeo was also a teacher and is considered the founder of the Proculic School of Law, named after his disciple Sempronius Proculus. There was also the recognition of medico-legal problems in the Far East. In China, around 1236 AD, a volume entitled Hsi Yuan Lu (freely translated, Washing Away of Wrongs) was compiled, describing the procedures for investigating suspicious deaths. The book asked the coroner to carefully and systematically examine each corpse, no matter how unpleasant its condition may be. The book discussed the difficulties caused by decomposition and even advised the examiner on the problems associated with false injuries.
Sections were devoted to injuries caused by punches or kicks, and deaths caused by strangulation or drowning. Ways to distinguish the bodies of drowned people from those thrown into the water after death were discussed, as well as the distinction between pre-autopsy and burning by autopsy. The examiner was also warned that nothing in the investigation should be considered unimportant. Given its time, this volume was surprisingly complete.5 In 1867, the Medico-Legal Society was founded in New York City. It was the first society in the world to organize to promote the principles that a lawyer could not be fully equipped to prosecute or defend a person accused of murder without some knowledge of anatomy and pathology, and that no doctor or surgeon could be a satisfactory expert without some knowledge of the law. Harvard University established its own chair of forensic medicine in 1877.2 Forensic medicine was promoted in formal educational circles. In 1650, Michiaelis lectured on forensic medicine in Germany. Around 1720, the state founded professorships for the subject. Germany founded the first known medical clinic in Vienna around 1830 and a second in Berlin in 1833. The France founded its first clinic in 1840. The France has also provided since 1803 that judges appoint medical experts, who must have a medical degree and have taken a course (in the early days, this requirement was met by attending one or more conferences) and have passed an examination in forensic medicine.
The France established its first professional chair of forensic medicine in 1794. Britain established its first chair of forensic medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1803. Until 1876, there were chairs in all faculties of medicine.9 The legal code of ancient Greece (around 460 BC) was very elaborate. Moreover, it was a time of great progress in medicine. While there is no clear evidence that medical knowledge was officially used to establish evidence in court, it is known that Hippocrates and others discussed many real-world medico-legal issues. These questions included the relative mortality of wounds in different parts of the body, the average length of pregnancy, the viability of children born before full birth, and other issues. On the other side of the Mediterranean, there is a papyrus found in Egypt dating back to pre-Christian times, in which a doctor from Alexandria presented a report of a suicide suspected of murder.5 MARCUS ANTISTIUS LABEO (*C. 50 BC – 18 AD), Roman jurist, son of Pacuvius Antistius Labeo was a jurist, who was killed after the defeat of his party at Philippi. As a member of the plebeian nobility and in simple circumstances, the young Labeo entered public life at an early age and soon rose to the post of praetor; but his blatant aversion to the new regime and the somewhat harsh manner in which he sometimes expressed his republican sympathies in the Senate—what Tacitus (Ann. iii. 7 5) calls his incorruptible freedoms—proved to be an obstacle to his ascension, and his rival, Ateius Capito, who had yielded unreservedly in his attachment to the powers that be, was promoted to the consulate by Augustus when the appointment should have been incumbent on Labeo; Labeo refused the office when it was offered to him the following year (Tac. Ann.
iii. 75; Pompon, in fr. 47, Dig. i. 2). Since then, he seems to have devoted all his time to jurisprudence. His education in science was mainly derived from Trebatius Testa. To his knowledge of law he added a vast general culture, which devoted his attention in particular to dialectics, philology (grammatica) and antiquities, as valuable tools in the presentation, expansion and application of legal doctrine (Gell. xiii. so). Until hadrian`s time, it was probably the name of the greatest authority; and some of his works have been shortened and commented on by later hands.
Although Capito is almost never mentioned, Labeo`s diktats are constantly repeated in the writings of classical jurists such as Gaius, Ulpian, and Paul; and no insignificant number of them have been considered worthy of preservation in Justinian`s Digest. Labeo is credited with being the founder of the proculian sect or school, while Capito is referred to as the founder of the rival Sabinian (Pomponius in Fr. 47, Dig. i. 2); but it is likely that the true founders of the two Scholae were Proculus and Sabinus, followers of the methods of Labeo and Capito respectively. It is a hypothesis, but no more than that; I used forensic neuropsychiatry and psychoanalysis-informed decision analysis as a means of opening up other avenues of investigation rather than reaching a final conclusion. As a practicing psychoanalyst, I cultivate curiosity in the most private environments about the truths received by an analytic and accepted “absolute” wisdom to free the analytic and ask previously unthinkable questions. As a forensic psychiatrist, I work in interdisciplinary teams to explore possible translations between the clinical world of meaning and the legal world of objectivity to understand the decisions people make when faced with ambiguities or adversity. In Italy, in 1602, a physician named Fortunato Fedele published a fairly comprehensive volume on forensic medicine entitled De Relationes Medicorum. Another Italian, Paola Zacchia, a papal physician, published the enormous Medicina-Legal Questions, which quickly overshadowed Fedele`s work. Zacchia`s book extensively discussed issues of age, legitimacy, pregnancy, death at birth, the resemblance of children to their parents, dementia, poisoning, impotence, false diseases, miracles, rape, mutilation, and public health issues. The work has flaws that can easily be explained by the time in which it was written; For example, knowledge of anatomy and physiology was sketchy and imperfect.
The book also includes sections on the different methods of torture that existed at the time, and it has a section that deals with miracles. Despite these shortcomings, it was a useful and influential volume.10 Before discussing forensics and forensics, it would be useful to have a general definition of terms.