The standards of forensic medicine and of medical jurisprudence (the terms are not synonymous) are not genuinely tested by investigation of a natural death, but rather by what happens when someone in high place meets a violent end. Those standards are sometimes pitifully weak in this country.
It is unlikely that a comparable medicolegal weakness would occur in England, thanks, in part, to "Taylor," whose 12th, and centenary edition, appeared last year. As its title states, this is not a work in forensic pathology, although pages are devoted to aspects of that field, nor is it a treatise on criminology. It is, as the editor proudly remarks in the preface, "firmly established as the work of ultimate reference in Courts of Law," designed to assist legal officers and medicolegal officials in pursuit of their duties, with special reference to English customs, practice, regulations, and laws.
In its coverage, "Taylor" ranges