Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), Literary, Broadway Journal (New York), April 26, 1845, vol. 1, no. 17, p. ???-???

[page 267, column 2, continued:]

Principles of Forensic Medicine. By William A Guy, M. B., Cantab., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, etc., etc. First American edition. 1,Vith Notes and Additions, by Charles A. Lee, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and General Pathology in Geneva College, etc., etc. New York: Harper & Brothers.

WE believe that before the publication of Dr. Guy's book, there was no convenient text-book of the English language on the subject of Forensic Medicine. The voluminous work of the Becks, although highly elaborate and meritorious, was for obvious reasons unadapted to the purposes of the student nor, indeed, as a manual for the legal or medical practitioner, could it be considered as suitable in any respect. The present volume omits every thing of merely literary interest, as well as all that concerns the history of Forensic Medicine — that is to say, the state of the law in former times and in different countries. The main object has been to afford results — general conclusions — in a word, to make a practical and useful book.

In discussing each subject, the author commences with a brief account of the existing provisions of the law; investigating, in the second place. under distinct heads, the principal medical questions springing from the law, and appending practical rules for medico-legal investigation. Throughout, the subjects are illustrated by cases.

The American editor has corrected numerous errors existing in the English work, and adapted the whole to the laws and institutions of the United States. His additions (which are very numerous and important) are distinguished from the English text by being enclosed in brackets.