A statement was rejected because the dying person, in using
the expression 'I have no hope of recovery,' requested that the words
'at present' should be added. If after making the statement the patient
were to say, 'I hope now I shall get better,' it would invalidate the
declaration. To make the declaration admissible as evidence, death must
ensue. If possible, a magistrate should take the dying declaration; but
if he is not available, the medical man, without any suggestions or
comments of his own, should write down the statements made by the dying
person, and see them signed and witnessed. It must be made clear to the
court that at the time of making his statement the witness was under the
full conviction of approaching or impending death.
III.--PERSONAL IDENTITY
It is but seldom that medical evidence is required with regard to the
identification of the living, though it may sometimes be so, as in the
celebrated Tichborne case. The medical man may in such cases be
consulted as to family resemblance, marks on the body, naevi materni,
scars and tattoo marks, or with regard to the organs of generation in
cases of doubtful sex. Tattoo marks may disappear during life; the
brighter colours, as vermilion, as a rule, more readily than those made
with carbon, as Indian ink; after death the colouring-matter may be
found in the proximal glands.
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