History and Development of Forensic Medicine

Abstract

Forensic medicine may be defined briefly as consisting essentially of that body of medical and paramedical scientific knowledge which may be used for the purposes of administration of the Law.In discussing its history it is obviously impossible to indicate any single date as the point at which forensic medicine emerged as a recognizable, separate scientific discipline.It is justifiable, no doubt, to contend that Medicine origi- nated in the very dawn of human history, when first a cry of pain prompted a fellow-being to experiment with simple forms of assuagement.Simi'arly, the Law may be said to have its origins in the earliest sanctions which were doubtless applied to disturbers of the peace in the most primitive communities.We cannot begin to think of forensic medicine as an entity, however, until a stage of civilization is reached in which we have, on the one hand, a recogniziable legal system, and on the other an integrated body of medical knowledge and opinion.Furthermore, we cannot know much about such matters until some means of recording them has been achieved, and our earliest records take us back only about five thousand years. Egyptian Law and MedicineWe must turn, therefore, to the records of the early l?terate civilizations of the Near East, particularly to those of the Nile Valley, where, from the ancient Egyptian inscriptions on stone and later on papyri, we can obtain some idea of the state of knowledge at that early period.I believe there is some evidence that Menes, the first Pharaoh, had a considerable know- ledge of medicinal plants, and it is quite certain that at a somewhat later period there was a knowledge of medicine which was not only extensive but also clearly systematized and showed a much more scien- tific approach to medical problems than is generally realized.This much can be gleaned from the now fairly numerous medical papyri which have been translated.These include the Ebers (medical), Edwin Smith (surgical), and Hearst Papyri, and a few others which are rather more fragmentary, such as the medi- cal papyri in the British Museum.From these, from illustrative inscriptions, and from actual mummified remains, it is possible to draw many valid conclusions regarding Egyptian law and medicine from as early as 2500 B.C. onwards.There was a definite system of law, relating not only to crime but also to property, marriage, and other civil matters.The punishments

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