The herald., 1897-03-03
NEW LEGAL AIDS
The x-Rsy Recognized by the Courts as
Scientific Factor

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Scientific Factor
A group of attorneys were engaged
in discussing some of the curiosities of
law yesterday in one of the departments,
and mention was made by che of the
number of the X-ray having received
legal recognition in this country and
also in the courts of Great Britain.
The case cited in which the matter had
been passed upon in the United States
courts occurred recently in st. Louis.
case had been brought into court
wherein the defendants counsel object
ed to the admission in evidence OF pho
tographs produced by means of the x
ray on the ground that, being photo
graphs of an object unseen by the human
eye. there was no evidence that the pie
lures accurately and correctly portrayed
and represented by the objects photo
graphed The rule of law, well settled
by authorities, was not dissented from
by defendants counsel so far as II
applied to photographs of external
things or objects visible to the human
eve: the contention was simply that no
reliance could be placed upon picture
of an object which, according TO any
conditions yet known to legal expert
ence, is invisible. The photographs
were submitted in evidence to show the
existing condition of the head and neck
of the femur bone, which is entirely hid
den from the eye of the surgeon in the
tissues by which it has been surrounded
by nature for protection.
In passing upon the objection the
court promised: During the last decade,
at least, no science has made such
mighty strides forward as surgery. II
is eminently a scientific profession, alike
interesting to the learned and unlearned.
u ,lrac Of oil and leoTUir
1t has thus been of inestimable service
to mankind. 1t must not be said OF the
law that il is so welded to precedent
that it will not lend helping hand.
Rather let the courts throw open the
door to all well-cor sidered scientiuc
discoveries. Modern science has made
it possible to look beneath the tissues
of the human body and it has aided sur
gerry in telling of the hidden myst teries.
We believe it to be our duty in this case
to be the first, if you please to so con-
slider it, in admitting in evidence pro-
cess known ard acknowledged as a de-
terminate science. 1t may solve pres
ent condition"
1t was the subtle mind of a Scotch
man. however. that first discovered
use for the X-ray as a judicial aid, and
this in rather startling fashion Mr.
Campbell Smith, sheriff of Dundee, be-
lieved that by throwing the rays on a
child so as to reveal its bones it would
be possible in many cases to decide who
the father might be when that sact was
erveloped in doubt. In Scotland the
sheriff is a magistrate, and in case
which came before Mr.. Campbell-Smith
he added the following note to his de-
cision:
Il know that the facial features of
child may be, and often are, as mat
ter of general appearance, derived from
any living or painted face that the
mother may have a fancy to and oppor-
tunity to look upon. But l also know
that parts of the body. such as the feet
the whole hidden skeleton. in short
which the mother could never see, must
in so far as differing evidently from her
be derived from the father, in so far as IT
clearly resembles him. The new or y
photography, which enables a compari-
son to be made in the shape of the bones,
taken along with the general appearance
and form of the other parts Of the body
not open to ordinary inspection, affords
a means of demonstrating paternity
about as clearly as science can demon
strate any fact"