Medicolegal History: A Review of Significant Publications and Educational Developments

Abstract

The development of the medicolegal field in the United States has followed an uneven course, marked by successions of rich and fallow periods. By the beginning of the nineteenth century a number of universities had qualified professors of medical jurisprudence on their faculties, and the field appeared to be in full flower. Yet, in 1876. a well-known American medical professor and dean, Stanford Emerson Chaille, wrote with some bitterness of the deplorable state of medical jurisprudence in this country. Today, there is considerable interest in the field, but the comparative dearth of medicolegal instruction at medical schools remains an issue.This article briefly traces the development in the United States of the medicolegal field, which for our purposes encompasses the legal questions concerning medicine and allied sciences Selected advances in education and publishing are highlighted; lastly, the article reviews those problems which appear to have prevented the full development of this field.