The opening of Introduction
THE terms FORENSIC MEDICINE, LEGAL MEDICINE, and MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE have heretofore been used interchangeably to apply to those branches of state medicine and of jurisprudence which have to deal with the applications of medical knowledge to the elucidation of questions of fact in courts of law, and with the legal regulation of the practice of medicine.
MEDICO-LEGAL SCIENCE therefore includes all subjects concerning which members of the legal and medical professions may seek information of one another, each acting in his professional capacity. It consists of two distinct branches: that treating of medical law, to which the designation of MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE properly applies; and that relating to the application of medical, surgical, or obstetrical knowledge to the purposes of legal trials, FORENSIC MEDICINE.[1]