Introduction to Legal Medicine – Vocabulary Review

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering major figures, concepts, evidence types, preservation methods, and legal branches discussed in the lecture on Legal and Forensic Medicine.

Legal Medicine

The application of medical knowledge to legal cases and the administration of justice.

Forensic Medicine

Medical science used to elucidate legal problems; interchangeable with legal medicine.

Medical Jurisprudence

Knowledge of law in relation to medical practice, covering the rights, duties and liabilities of physicians.

Forensic Pathology

Branch of medicine that investigates sudden, unnatural, unexplained or violent deaths to determine cause and manner of death.

Pathology

The study of the essential nature of disease, including the examination of tissues for abnormalities.

Imhotep

First recorded medico-legal expert (Egypt, 2900 BC) who documented a murder trial.

Code of Hammurabi

Oldest code of law (Babylon, ~2200 BC) outlining physicians’ duties and penalties for malpractice.

Code of Manu

First legal code of India containing medico-legal principles on poisons, sexual crimes and marriage.

Hippocrates

Greek physician who separated medicine from religion and wrote the Hippocratic Oath forbidding poisons and abortions.

Archimedes

Considered the first forensic scientist; used science to test the purity of a gold crown without destroying it.

Antistius

Roman physician who autopsied Julius Caesar and became the first police surgeon and forensic pathologist.

Galen

Ancient physician who studied stillbirth and described differences in lung tissue before and after birth.

Paulus Zacchias

Father of Legal Medicine; authored the seven-volume ‘Questiones medico-legales’.

Giovanni Battista Morgagni

Father of Modern Anatomical Pathology who correlated autopsy findings with clinical symptoms.

Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila

Father of Toxicology who refined arsenic detection and authored ‘Traité des poisons’.

Alphonse Bertillon

Father of Anthropometry and Clinical Detection; created a body-measurement identification system.

Francois Galton

Father of Fingerprint Identification who classified finger ridge patterns.

Leone Lattes

Father of Bloodstain Analysis; developed a method to type dried blood stains.

Karl Landsteiner

Nobel laureate and Father of Blood Typing; discovered the ABO blood group system.

Edmond Locard

Father of the Crime Laboratory; formulated the Locard Exchange Principle: every contact leaves a trace.

Calvin Goddard

Father of Ballistics who used comparison microscopy to link bullets to firearms.

Alec Jeffreys

Father of DNA profiling; developed genetic fingerprinting techniques in 1985.

Lawrence Farwell

Inventor of Brain Fingerprinting, a technique that detects concealed information via brainwaves.

Casper’s Dictum of Putrefaction

Principle describing predictable decomposition timelines, published by Johann Ludwig Casper.

Hydrostatic Test

Test introduced by Sonnenkalb (1561) to distinguish live birth from stillbirth using lung buoyancy.

Locard Exchange Principle

Forensic concept that material is always transferred when two objects come into contact.

Anthropometry

System of personal identification by body measurements developed by Bertillon.

Ballistics

Forensic science dealing with motion, behavior and effects of projectiles, pioneered by Calvin Goddard.

DNA Profiling

Identification technique using an individual’s unique genetic pattern, pioneered by Alec Jeffreys.

Medico-legal Officer

Physician trained to perform autopsies, examine victims/suspects, analyze evidence and testify in court.

Coroner

Elected official (often non-physician) who conducts judicial inquiries into violent or suspicious deaths.

Medical Examiner

Appointed licensed physician, usually a forensic pathologist, who performs autopsies and certifies deaths.

Medical Evidence

Evidence whose nature is medical, used to prove facts in court.

Autoptic (Real) Evidence

Evidence perceived directly by the court’s senses, e.g., a skeleton or weapon.

Testimonial Evidence

Oral evidence given by witnesses; may be ordinary (fact) or expert (opinion).

Experimental Evidence

Court-sanctioned experiments performed to confirm or corroborate a medical opinion.

Documentary Evidence

Written or recorded instruments such as medical reports, certificates or depositions.

Physical Evidence

Articles or materials found at a crime scene that help establish events or perpetrator identity.

Corpus Delicti Evidence

Objects or substances constituting the body of the crime itself, e.g., the victim’s body.

Associative Evidence

Items linking a suspect to a crime, such as fingerprints or clothing.

Trace Evidence

Small amounts of material that may help locate a suspect, e.g., blood stains or vehicle manifests.

Direct Evidence

Evidence that proves a fact in dispute without needing inference, e.g., eyewitness to the act.

Circumstantial Evidence

Facts from which a disputed fact is inferred; multiple circumstances may secure conviction.

Best Method of Preserving Evidence

Photographs, videos, and other multimedia recordings are considered the most reliable preservation method.

Air Drying

Preferred method for preserving blood or seminal stains by allowing them to dry naturally in covered air.

Embalming

Special preservation method injecting ~70 % formalin to keep a body intact for about seven days.

Civil Law (Forensic Context)

Branch regulating family relations and private interests where medico-legal issues like paternity arise.

Criminal Law (Forensic Context)

Branch defining crimes and penalties; forensic medicine aids in cases such as homicide or rape.

Remedial Law

Rules of court procedure; includes physical and mental examinations and evidentiary rules.

Special Laws

Statutes like the Dangerous Drugs Act or Code of Sanitation that require medico-legal expertise.

Forensic Serology

Study of bodily fluids (blood, semen, saliva) for legal investigations.

Disaster Victim Identification (DVI)

Systematic process using forensic science to identify victims in mass casualty events.