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5 Am. L. Rev 704 (1870-1871)
Book Notices

handle is hein.journals/amlr5 and id is 714 raw text is: BOOK NOTICES. BOOK NOTICES. A Medico-Legal Treatise on .Malpractice and Mlledical Evidence, comprising the Elements of Medical Jurisprudence. By JohN J. ELWVELL, M.D., member of the Cleveland bar; one of the editors of new edition of Bouvier's Law Dic- tionary; Professor in Ohio State and Union Law College, and Western Reserve Medical College, &., &c. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Baker, Voorhis, & Company. 1871. A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity. By I. RAY, M.D. Fifth Edition, with additions. Boston: Littlb, Browfi, & Company. 1871. MR. ELWELL, in the introduction to his work, says: Frequent, important, and troublesome as are the cases of alleged malpractice by medical men, there is yet no work treating upon the subject; and medical and legal inquiries after informa- tion upon the question are obliged to seek it in the vast range of elementary works upon medicine and law, and in the unlimited field of reports, constituting the larger part of every lawyer's library. The author trusts that in the first part of this work he has supplied this desideratum, - at least, to a considerable extent. The first two hundred and sixty pages of the book are accordingly devoted to the subject of malpractice. Chapter 1. treats of the General principles of law applicable to medical men. It is probably intended particularly for the instruc- tion of medical men and not of lawyers, as the principles of law are not clearly stated, and as the cases cited are cited without method or selection. A lawyer in need of such information can get more and better. from a section of Story on Bailments, than he can from this entire chapter. Chapters II. and Ill. aie designed more particularly for the legal profession. Their truth is well under- stood by all intelligent medical men. The second is upon The inherent cla- mentary difficulties connected with the practice of medicine and surgery; and the third is upon What definite knowledge is possible and essential for the physician and surgeon. They point out to the attorney that by bringing unfounded actions for malpractice he renders the profession of surgery a dangerous one, and hinders competent physicians from undertaking surgical operations in time of need, through fear that if the result of such an operation be unsatisfactory to the patient, the physician will be subjected to a groundless action. There is truth in this. We have known a couple of pettifogging actions for alleged malpractice to have the effect of rendering every respectable physician in the county rightfully averse to undertake any surgical operation outside the families he regularly attended. Our author then treats of malpractice from amputation, and of malprac- tice in fractures and dislocations. He gives A digest of Professor F. H. Hamil- ton's reports of cases of defbrmities after fractures, which we advise every attorney to read before commencing an action against a surgeon for malpractice.

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