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Forensic Medicine in Scotland, 1914-39

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Forensic Medicine in Scotland, 1914-39 Forensic medicine in Scotland, 1914-39 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Life Sciences 2013 Nicholas Edward Duvall Table of Contents Illustrations ..............................................................................................................4 Abbreviations...........................................................................................................5 Abstract......................................................................................................................6 Declaration ...............................................................................................................7 Copyright statement ..............................................................................................8 Acknowledgements................................................................................................9 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: The autopsy in Forensic medicine............................................. 29 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 29 Historiography ......................................................................................................................... 31 Legal Framework of the post mortem................................................................... 38 Post mortem procedure ............................................................................................ 41 Preventing error during the autopsy ............................................................................. 47 Post-mortem inscription........................................................................................... 50 Professional hierarchies ...................................................................................................... 57 The post mortem and other techniques .............................................................. 60 The post mortem within forensic medicine ................................................................ 60 Contexts and case histories ................................................................................................ 64 Conclusions.................................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 2: The medico-legal laboratory ...................................................... 71 The Institutions............................................................................................................ 73 Edinburgh................................................................................................................................... 73 Glasgow ....................................................................................................................................... 77 The two universities .............................................................................................................. 79 Development oF analytical techniques................................................................. 80 Semen........................................................................................................................................... 81 Blood............................................................................................................................................. 88 Hair and fibre..........................................................................................................................100 Protocols and challenges ........................................................................................109 Conclusions..................................................................................................................117 Chapter 3: Cooperation and the challenge oF replication: the medico- legal investigation oF shootings. ...................................................................119 Shooting investigations – an overview...............................................................121 Victorian Investigations .....................................................................................................121 The experiences of the Boer War and Edwardian Forensics.............................128 The 1920s: towards an object-oriented approach .................................................133 The Merrett Case: a Family tragedy .....................................................................138 Doctors and gunsmiths.......................................................................................................142 Experimentation in forensics...........................................................................................153 Conclusions..................................................................................................................164 Chapter 4: Photography and Forensic medicine......................................166 The photograph as a recording and communication device ......................170 The Forensic photograph For posterity and teaching ....................................188 2 The photograph as an analytical tool .................................................................196 An enhanced view.................................................................................................................196 Photographs for comparison ...........................................................................................200 Conclusions..................................................................................................................208 Chapter 5: Medico-legists in the media – recollection and reflection ..................................................................................................................................210 Outline oF output material......................................................................................220 ReFlection – popular output and the themes identiFied in the historical study oF Forensic medicine .....................................................................................228 SelF-presentation of experts ..................................................................................237 Conclusions..................................................................................................................252 Conclusion............................................................................................................254 Bibliography........................................................................................................260 Archives ........................................................................................................................260 Published sources, theses and broadcasts........................................................261 88 427 words 3 Illustrations Figure 1: Inked outline of Mrs Ruxton's photograph superimposed onto outline of Skull No. 1. The two do not match. National Archives, DPP 2/306. (Photograph, Ian Burney)........................................................................ 204 Figure 2: Photograph of Mrs Ruxton superimposed onto photograph of Skull No. 2. National Archives, DPP 2/306. (Photograph, Ian Burney) .......... 205 Figure 3: Front cover of Smith's memoir, Mostly murder (1959). (Photograph, the author) ............................................................................................... 241 4 Abbreviations EUL SC: Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections GUA: Glasgow University Archive NRS: National Records of Scotland RCPE: Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 5 Abstract The University of Manchester Nicholas Edward Duvall Doctor of Philosophy Forensic medicine in Scotland, 1914-39 24 January 2013 This thesis examines the practice of forensic medicine in Scotland in the period 1914 to 1939. This was a time of significant dynamism for the discipline, in which it enjoyed a high public profile and played an important role in the investigation of crime. The project focuses in particular on medico-legal practice at an elite level, based in specialist departments in the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. As well as producing a significant amount of research and textbook material, and thus constituting authorities within the discipline, representatives of these institutions gave expert evidence in a number of high- profile trials. Thus, an examination of their work can show how medico-legal knowledge was constructed, presented and challenged. To this end, four main areas of forensic medical practice are analysed, including the post-mortem examination, the laboratory analysis of trace evidence, the investigation of shootings and the use of photography. The development of the techniques contained within these categories is charted, as is the range of situations to which they were applied and the various ways in which their use was challenged in court by hostile legal counsel. Sources including textbooks and journal articles, medical case reports, photograph albums and trial transcripts are used. A fifth section explores an area of the public face of the discipline, specifically the popular output of two of its most famous practitioners, Sydney Smith and John Glaister Jr. Both produced memoirs and newspaper serials after retirement. These are used to explore the ways they reflected on their careers and spun their legacies, portraying themselves as
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