upon a trial in this country, where we are so
happy as to be under the protection of judges, who, by their education,
studies, and habits, are above the reach of vulgar prejudices, and make
it a rule for their conduct to suppose the accused party innocent till
guilt be proved; with such judges, I say, there will be little danger of
an innocent woman being condemned by false reasoning. But danger, in the
cases of which we are now treating, may arise from the evidence and
opinions given by physical people, who are called in to settle questions
in science, which judges and jurymen are supposed not to know with
accuracy. In general I am afraid too much has been left to our decision.
Many of our profession are not so conversant with science as the world
may think: and some of us are a little disposed to grasp at authority in
a public examination, by giving a quick and decided opinion, where it
should have been guarded with doubt; a character which no man should be
ambitious to acquire, who in his profession is presumed every day to be
deciding nice questions upon which the life of a patient may depend.

To form a solid judgment about the birth of a new-born child, from the
examination of its body, a professional man should have seen many
new-born children, both still-born, and such as had outlived their birth
a short time only; and he should have dissected, or attended the
dissections of a number of bodies in the different stages of advancing
putrefaction. I have often seen various common and natural appearances,
both internal and external, mistaken for marks of a violent death. I
remember a child which was found in a compressed state and globular
form, and, like hardened dough, had retained all the concave impressions
which had been made where any part of the skin and flesh had been
pressed inwards. The jury had got an opinion that this moulding of the
flesh could not have happened, except the infant had been put into that
compressed state while it was alive. My anatomical employments enabled
me to remove all their doubts about the fact. I offered to make the
experiment before them, if they pleased; the child should be laid in
warm water, till its flesh should become soft and pliable, as in a body
just dead; then it should be compressed, and remain so till cold, and
then they would see the same effect produced. They were satisfied,
without making the trial.

In many cases, to judge of the death of a child, it may be materia