Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology | Page 5

of a fatal illness or the result of a post-mortem examination. These reports must be drawn up very carefully, and no technical terms should be employed.
No witness on being sworn can be compelled to 'kiss the book.' The Oaths Act (51 and 52 Vict., c. 46, § 5) declares, without any qualification, that 'if any person to whom an oath is administered desires to swear with uplifted hand, in the form and manner in which an oath is usually administered in Scotland, he shall be permitted to do so, and the oath shall be administered to him in such form and manner without further question.' The witness takes the oath standing, with the bare right hand uplifted above the head, the formula being: 'I swear by Almighty God that I will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.' The presiding judge should say the words, and the witness should repeat them after him. There is no kissing of the book, and the words 'So help me, God,' which occur in the English form, are not employed. It will be noted that the Scotch form constitutes an oath, and is not an affirmation. The judge has no right to ask if you object on religious grounds, or to put any question. He is bound by the provisions of the Act, and the enactment applies not only to all forms of the witness oath, whether in civil or criminal courts, or before coroners, but to every oath which may be lawfully administered either in Great Britain or Ireland.
A witness engaged to give expert evidence should demand his fee before going into court, or, at all events, before being sworn.
With regard to notes, these should be made at the time, on the spot, and may be used by the witness in court as a refresher to the memory, though not altogether to supply its place. All evidence is made up of testimony, but all testimony is not evidence. The witness must not introduce hearsay testimony. In one case only is hearsay evidence admissible, and that is in the case of a dying declaration. This is a statement made by a dying person as to how his injuries were inflicted. These declarations are accepted because the law presumes that a dying man is anxious to speak the truth. But the person must believe that he is actually on the point of death, with absolutely no hope of recovery. A statement was rejected because the dying person, in using the expression 'I have no hope of recovery,' requested that the words 'at present' should be added. If after making the statement the patient were to say, 'I hope now I shall get better,' it would invalidate the declaration. To make the declaration admissible as evidence, death must ensue. If possible, a magistrate should take the dying declaration; but if he is not available, the medical man, without any suggestions or comments of his own, should write down the statements made by the dying person, and see them signed and witnessed. It must be made clear to the court that at the time of making his statement the witness was under the full conviction of approaching or impending death.

III.--PERSONAL IDENTITY
It is but seldom that medical evidence is required with regard to the identification of the living, though it may sometimes be so, as in the celebrated Tichborne case. The medical man may in such cases be consulted as to family resemblance, marks on the body, n?vi materni, scars and tattoo marks, or with regard to the organs of generation in cases of doubtful sex. Tattoo marks may disappear during life; the brighter colours, as vermilion, as a rule, more readily than those made with carbon, as Indian ink; after death the colouring-matter may be found in the proximal glands. If the tattooing is superficial (merely underneath the cuticle) the marks may possibly be removed by acetic acid or cantharides, or even by picking out the colouring-matter with a fine needle. With regard to scars and their permanence, it will be remembered that scars occasioned by actual loss of substance, or by wounds healed by granulation, never disappear. The scars of leech-bites, lancet-wounds, or cupping instruments, may disappear after a lapse of time. It is difficult, if not impossible, to give any certain or positive opinion as to the age of a scar; recent scars are pink in colour; old scars are white and glistening. The cicatrix resulting from a wound depends upon its situation. Of incised wounds an elliptical cicatrix is typical, linear being chiefly found between the fingers and toes. By way of disguise the hair may be dyed black with lead acetate or nitrate of silver; detected by allowing the hair to grow, or by steeping some of it in