Abstract
As a medical practitioner affiliated to the city police and responsive to the demands of legal officials, the police surgeon daily worked at the intersection between differing professional collectives and communities in the nineteenth century. Conducting physical examinations of assaulted parties, undertaking post-mortem dissections and certifying cases of mental insanity formed the cornerstone of the police surgeon’s daily diet of forensic work in Victorian Edinburgh. In addition, the police surgeon was frequently on call day or night (and in any weather) to the local force. Accordingly, this practitioner often became the vital first point of medical contact with victims (and suspects) in cases of homicide or assault in the nineteenth century. Yet despite the pivotal role this practitioner occupied as a forensic expert in the Victorian city, relatively little scholarship has been dedicated to analysing the contribution and nature of the police surgeon’s medico-legal work. However, analysis of the career and life of one Scottish police surgeon—Henry Duncan Littlejohn—indicates that the experience gained from the regular practice of medical jurisprudence was vital in developing and maintaining an authoritative medico-legal presence both within and outside the courtroom. In particular, historical records suggest that the surgeon of police collaborated with constables, detectives and prosecutors to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of violent crime. Sometimes this collaboration would be procedural and routine, such as directing officers to remove bodies to the mortuary of the police chambers. At other times, these practitioners worked closely with the local force and legal officials in more complex and influential ways that blurred the professional and practical boundaries between medicine, policing and criminal investigation. Moreover, the nature of Scottish procedure in suspicious deaths also forced the police surgeon to co-operate with a diverse range of medical practitioners in the examination and certification of death, injury and lunacy in the Scottish city. Sometimes, resolving inconsistencies in medical evidence could be a core part of the police surgeon’s role when consulted by the Crown. On other occasions, working in partnership with other doctors to establish an informed, robust and objective medical opinion of a case was vital to the consolidation of the police surgeon’s medico-legal authority.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Precognition of Dr Henry Duncan Littlejohn’, 29 November 1859 in Precognition Against Ann McQue for the Crime of Child Murder at York Place, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1860, GB234/AD14/60/260, p. 31.
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
At this time, Littlejohn lived at 67 York Place in the city’s New Town.
- 4.
See the witness statements made by George Gibson and Mrs Watts, as reported in: ‘High Court of Justiciary: The York place child-murder’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 13 March 1860, p. 4
- 5.
Ibid., p. 4.
- 6.
Henry Duncan Littlejohn’s witness testimony as reported in ibid.
- 7.
‘Precognition of Dr Henry Duncan Littlejohn’, 29 November 1859 in Precognition Against Ann McQue for the Crime of Child Murder, p. 32.
- 8.
‘High Court of justiciary: The York place child-murder’, The Scotsman, p. 4.
- 9.
‘Precognition of Dr Henry Duncan Littlejohn’, 29 November 1859 in Precognition Against Ann McQue for the Crime of Child Murder, pp. 32–33.
- 10.
It was also suggested in the indictment that the child may have received pre-mortem injuries to its body by being beaten by McQue prior to her disposal of the child from the attic window. However, isolating the exact cause of such injuries was impossible in the case. See: Ibid., pp. 33–34.
- 11.
‘High Court of Justiciary: The York place child-murder’, The Scotsman, p. 4.
- 12.
Precognition of Dr Henry Duncan Littlejohn’, 29 November 1859 in Precognition Against Ann McQue for the Crime of Child Murder, pp. 33–34.
- 13.
Ibid., p. 34.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
‘Indictment’ in Precognition Against Ann McQue for the Crime of Child Murder.
- 17.
There remains only a very limited scholarship on the history and analysis of the police surgeon in Britain. This stands in relative contrast to the more extensive research conducted upon prison surgeons and other institutional doctors. Core studies to date that have explored the general history and work of the police surgeon, include: J. Bourke, ‘Police surgeons and sexual violence: A history’, The Lancet, 2017, 390(10094): 548–549; J. Bourke, ‘Police surgeons and victims of rape: Cultures of harm and care’, Social History of Medicine, 2018, 31(4): 711–731; Y. Bradshaw et al., ‘A different sort of doctor: The police surgeon in England and Wales’, Social Policy & Administration, 1995, 29(2): 122–134; S.P. Savage et al., ‘Divided loyalties? The police surgeon and criminal justice’, Policing and Society, 1997, 7(2): 79–98; R.D. Summers, History of the Police Surgeon, London: Association of Police Surgeons of Great Britain, 1988.
- 18.
A particularly useful comparison between the English and Scottish system of prosecution is offered in M.A. Crowther, ‘Crime, prosecution and mercy: English influence and Scottish practice in the early nineteenth century’, in S.J. Connolly (ed.), Kingdoms United? Great Britain and Ireland Since 1500: Integration and Diversity, Dublin and Portland: Four Courts Press, 1999, pp. 225–238.
- 19.
Ibid., pp. 225–226.
- 20.
This point was observed in student notes taken during lectures on forensic medicine by Littlejohn; see ‘Lecture X’, 20 May 1906 in Forensic Medicine: Volume of Notes on Forensic Medicine from Lectures Delivered, c. 1906 by Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn, Physician, while Professor of Forensic Medicine at Edinburgh University, 1897–1906, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1906, GB 233/MS.19321, pp. 30 and 33 particularly.
- 21.
M.A. Crowther, ‘Criminal precognitions and their value for historians’, Scottish Archives, 1995, 1: 76; P.T. Riggs, ‘Prosecutors, juries, judges and punishment in early nineteenth-century Scotland’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 2012, 32(2): 168–172.
- 22.
This was first observed by Anne Crowther in the above piece, published in Scottish Archives almost twenty-five years ago. Despite this, scholars have still yet to fully utilize the value of precognition records in the study of Scottish crime.
- 23.
B.M. White, ‘The police surgeon as Medical Officer of Health in Scotland 1862–1897’, The Police Surgeon, 1989, 35: 29–37; I. Levitt, ‘Henry Littlejohn and Scottish Health Policy, 1859–1908’, Scottish Archives, 1996, 2: 63–77; P. Laxton and R. Rodger, Insanitary City: Henry Littlejohn and the Condition of Edinburgh, Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing Limited, 2013.
- 24.
For a discussion of Littlejohn’s performance as a medico-legal witness within the Scottish courtroom, see K.A. Couzens, ‘Upon my word, I do not see the use of medical evidence here’: Persuasion, Authority and Medical Expertise in the Edinburgh High Court of Justiciary’, History, 2019, 104(359): 42–62.
- 25.
‘The Late Sir Henry D. Littlejohn, M.D.: A Distinguished Public Official and Medical Jurist’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 2 October 1914, p. 5; ‘Littlejohn, Thomas’, Post Office Annual Directory, Edinburgh, Postmaster General, 1828–1829, p. 103.
- 26.
‘The Late Sir Henry D. Littlejohn, MD’, The Scotsman, p. 5.
- 27.
Laxton and Rodger, Insanitary City, p. 7.
- 28.
Ibid., p. 8.
- 29.
‘The Late Sir Henry D. Littlejohn, MD’, The Scotsman, p. 5.
- 30.
Laxton and Rodger, Insanitary City, p. 45.
- 31.
Ibid., pp. 45–47.
- 32.
Ibid., p. 72.
- 33.
‘Surgeon Wanted for the Edinburgh Police Establishment’, 2 August 1854, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, p. 1.
- 34.
See Medicus, ‘The Police Surgeon’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 12 July 1854, p. 3; Medicus, ‘The Police Surgeon’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 15 July 1854, p. 3.
- 35.
J. Robins, The Magnificent Spilsbury and the Case of the Brides in the Bath, London: John Murray, 2010, pp. 29–30.
- 36.
Laxton and Rodger, Insanitary City, p. 75.
- 37.
On the readership of the Scotsman, see: The Scotsman, 1817–1955: Scotland’s National Newspaper, Edinburgh: The Scotsman Publications Limited, 1955, pp. 1–2.
- 38.
‘Police Commission’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 16 August 1854, p. 3
- 39.
Ibid.
- 40.
Ibid.
- 41.
‘Resignation of Sir Henry D Littlejohn’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 16 March 1908, p. 7.
- 42.
Ibid.
- 43.
‘The Late Sir Henry D. Littlejohn, MD’, The Scotsman, p. 5. For an excellent recent contextual survey of Littlejohn’s Report that also includes a reproduction of the original text, see: Laxton and Rodger, Insanitary City.
- 44.
‘Resignation of Sir Henry D Littlejohn’, The Scotsman, p. 7.
- 45.
‘The Late Sir Henry D. Littlejohn, MD’, The Scotsman, p. 5.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
H.P. Tait, ‘Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn: Great Scottish Sanitarian and Medical Jurist’, The Medical Officer, 21st September 1962, 108: 186.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
H. Sutherland, A Time to Keep, London: Geoffrey Bles, 1934, p. 71.
- 50.
Ibid.
- 51.
‘Professor Sir Henry Littlejohn’s Opening Lecture’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 5 May 1897, p. 12
- 52.
‘United Kingdom Police Surgeons’ Association’, British Medical Journal, London, 20 August 1897, pp. 492–493.
- 53.
‘Resignation of Sir Henry D Littlejohn’, The Scotsman, p. 7.
- 54.
‘High Court of Justiciary—The Queen’s Park Murder Case’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 3 June 1872, pp. 6–7.
- 55.
Ibid.
- 56.
Ibid.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
‘The Suspected Murder in the Queen’s Park’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 26 March 1872, p. 3.
- 61.
On this point, see, for example, ‘High Court of Justiciary—The Queen’s Park Murder Case’, The Scotsman, p. 7.
- 62.
D. Kalifa, ‘Crime scenes: Criminal topography and social imaginary in nineteenth-century Paris’, French Historical Studies, 2004, 27(1): 177–178; A. Brown-May and S. Cooke, ‘Death, decency and the dead-house: The city morgue in colonial Melbourne’, Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria, 2004, (3): 2 of 20 pages.
- 63.
See, for example, Sutherland, A Time to Keep, pp. 70–71.
- 64.
Although a study of the police detective in Scotland remains to be conducted, an excellent general discussion of the social and cultural history of the police detective within England can be found in H. Shpayer-Makov, The Ascent of the Detective: Police Sleuths in Victorian and Edwardian England, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
- 65.
See ‘Report of the Post-Mortem Examination by Drs Maclagan and Littlejohn of body of Madame Chantrelle’, 3 January 1878 in Print of Declarations and Reports of Experts in the Trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle for Murder in Trial Papers Relating to Eugene Marie Chantrelle for the Crime of Murder at 81a George Street, Edinburgh. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1878, GB234/JC26/1878/296/15, p. 20; ‘Appendix IV. Report of Post-Mortem Examination by Drs. Maclagan and Littlejohn of Body of Madame Chantrelle’, in A.D. Smith (ed.), Trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle, Glasgow and Edinburgh: William Hodge & Company, 1906.
- 66.
Testimony of Henry Littlejohn, as reported in Smith (ed.), Trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle, pp. 82–83.
- 67.
Ibid., pp. 83 and 95.
- 68.
Testimony of Littlejohn, as reported in ibid., p. 84.
- 69.
Ibid., p. 76.
- 70.
Testimony of Douglas Maclagan, as reported in ibid., p. 94.
- 71.
Testimony of Douglas Maclagan, as reported in ibid., p. 95.
- 72.
See, for example, Testimony of Douglas Maclagan, as reported in ibid., p. 96.
- 73.
Henry Duncan Littlejohn and George Clark, ‘Medical report of the post-mortem of Mary Ann Webster’, 27 November 1890 in Precognition Against John Webster, John Webster for the Crime of Murder at Newtown Hotel, Southmuir of Kirriemuir, Forfarshire, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1891, GB234/AD14/91/154, p. 399.
- 74.
Ibid.
- 75.
For a particularly pertinent discussion of ‘disgust’ and its relationship to the human body and physical waste, see W.I. Miller, The Anatomy of Disgust, Cambridge, MA and London, Harvard University Press, 1997.
- 76.
For an excellent technical and diagrammatic account of how to conduct a post-mortem, see H.D. Littlejohn, ‘On the practice of medical jurisprudence: No IV post-mortem examination. B. Internal examination’, Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1876, XXI(VIII): 1112–1124.
- 77.
Ibid., p. 1116.
- 78.
‘High Court of Justiciary: The Potterow Case’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 20 September 1902.
- 79.
‘Precognition of Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn, MD, Edinburgh’, 2 August 1902 in Precognition Against John Adamson for the Crime of Murder at 39 Potterrow, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1902, GB234/AD15/02/22, pp. 67–68.
- 80.
‘Precognition of John Linton, MD’, 4 August 1902 in Precognition Against John Adamson for the Crime of Murder at 39 Potterrow, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1902, GB234/AD15/02/22, p. 83.
- 81.
Ibid., p. 84.
- 82.
‘Precognition of Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn, MD, Edinburgh’, 2 August 1902 in Precognition Against John Adamson for the Crime of Murder at 39 Potterrow, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1902, GB234/AD15/02/22, p. 68.
- 83.
V. Bates, ‘“So far as I can define without a microscopical examination”: Venereal disease diagnosis in English courts, 1850–1914’, Social History of Medicine, 2012, 26(1): 38–55, p. 42 particularly; I. Crozier and G. Rees, ‘Making a space for medical expertise: Medical knowledge of sexual assault and the construction of boundaries between forensic medicine and the law in late nineteenth-century England’, Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2012, 8(2): 285–304; L. A. Jackson, Child Sexual Abuse in Victorian England, London and New York: Routledge, 2000, pp. 71–89 especially.
- 84.
Between the 1820s and 1900s, Edinburgh police surgeons such as Drs Tait, Black, Glover, Henry Littlejohn and Harvey Littlejohn, were routinely called as expert witnesses in rape trials at the High Court of Justiciary. See particularly, Chapter 4: Rape in the forthcoming: K.A. Couzens, Medicine on Trial: Medical Testimony & Forensic Expertise in the Scottish High Court of Justiciary, c. 1822–1906, Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2019.
- 85.
‘Indictment’ in Trial Papers Relating to John Walker for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish at Torphichen Village, Linlithgow. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1874, GB234/JC26/1874/400.
- 86.
NOTE: No page numbers available for this source. ‘Precognition of Elizabeth Henrietta Aitken’, 3 August 1874 in Precognition Against John Walker for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish at Torphichen Village, Linlithgow, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1874, GB234/AD14/74/307.
- 87.
Linlithgow is approximately 30 kilometres from Edinburgh.
- 88.
NOTE: No page numbers recorded in this source. ‘Medical Report by Henry D. Littlejohn’, 31 August 1874 in Precognition Against John Walker for the Crime of Rape.
- 89.
NOTE: No page numbers recorded in this source. ‘Report by Dr Littlejohn in Case of Wm King’, 12 October 1876 in Trial Papers Relating to William King for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1876, GB234/JC26/1876/313.
- 90.
T.W. Lacqueur, ‘Bodies, details, and the humanitarian narrative’, in L. Hunt (ed.), The New Cultural History, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989, p. 179.
- 91.
Ibid., p. 178.
- 92.
‘High Court of Justiciary’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 5 December 1876, p. 3.
- 93.
Anon., Duties and Emoluments of Police Surgeon, Edinburgh: Pamphlet Collection of the Royal College of Physicians, c. 1847, p. 2.
- 94.
Ibid.
- 95.
Ibid., p. 3.
- 96.
H. Shpayer-Makov, ‘Journalists and police detectives in Victorian and Edwardian England: An uneasy reciprocal relationship’, Journal of Social History, 2009, 42(4): 963–987.
- 97.
‘Precognition of John Bell, Constable of the Edinburgh City Police’, 24 June 1882 in Precognition Against Jessie Peattie for the Crime of Child Murder, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1882, GB234/AD14/82/47, p. 19.
- 98.
‘Precognition of Henry Duncan Littlejohn, MD’, 26 June 1882 in ibid., pp. 43–44.
- 99.
‘High Court of Justiciary: Concealment of Pregnancy’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 25 July 1882, p. 3.
- 100.
‘High Court of Justiciary: Charge of Child Murder’, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 11 May 1860, p. 4.
- 101.
H.D. Littlejohn, ‘A case of poisoning with nitrate of potash, with hints as to the conduct of medical practitioners in cases of suspected poisoning’, Transaction of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, 1885, 4: 25.
- 102.
Ibid., p. 26.
- 103.
Ibid.
- 104.
Ibid.
- 105.
Ibid.
- 106.
See ‘Report of the post-mortem examination of the body of William Walker’ in H.D. Littlejohn, ‘A case of poisoning with nitrate of potash’, p. 27.
- 107.
Ibid., p. 28.
- 108.
Ibid.
- 109.
Ibid., p. 29.
- 110.
Ibid., p. 29. See also Testimony of William Angus, as reported in ‘High Court of Justiciary: Charge of Child Murder’, The Scotsman, p. 4.
- 111.
Ibid., p. 29.
- 112.
Ibid., p. 29. Nitre was typically used in this period for curing meats or in the production of match-paper. It was cheap and easily available.
- 113.
Ibid., pp. 28–29.
- 114.
‘Indictment’ in Trial Papers Relating to Edward Pratt Evatt for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1882, GB234/JC26/1882/316.
- 115.
Henry Duncan Littlejohn, ‘Case of Edward Pratt Evatt: Answer to Queries of Crown Counsel’, 10 May 1882 in Precognition Against Edward Pratt Evatt for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1882, GB234/AD14/82/41, pp. 1–4.
- 116.
‘Note by Crown Counsel’, 13 May 1882 in ibid.
- 117.
NOTE: No page numbers given in this source. ‘Medical Certificate by Wm.Hy. Murray’, 20 April 1882 in Trial Papers Relating to Edward Pratt Evatt for the Crime of Rape.
- 118.
Note: Emphasis belong to the original text. See Littlejohn, ‘Case of Edward Pratt Evatt: Answer to Queries of Crown Counsel’ in Precognition Against Edward Pratt Evatt for the Crime of Rape, pp. 2–3.
- 119.
‘Precognition of William Henry Murray’, 13 May 1882 in ibid., p. 35.
- 120.
A. Digby, Making a Medical Living: Doctors and Patients in the English Market for Medicine, 1720–1911, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 50.
- 121.
Note: No page numbers recorded in this source. Letter from Charles Kinane to Henry Littlejohn’, 16 March 1878 in ‘Infanticide Vol. I.’ in Notebooks of Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Library Special Collections, c.1880, 5 volumes, GB 237/EUA IN1/ACU/F1/1.
- 122.
Ibid.
- 123.
Approximately five scrapbooks survive within the Edinburgh University Library Special Collections (EULSC) archive, with the two scrapbooks on ‘Infanticide’ the most fruitful for correspondence and material on medical jurisprudence. Despite their labelling, the content does not always correspond to the title of each book, and only three of the five notebooks include retained correspondence. See Notebooks of Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn.
- 124.
M.A. Crowther, ‘Forensic medicine and medical ethics in nineteenth-century Britain’, in R. Baker (ed.), The Codification of Medical Morality, Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995, pp. 173–190.
- 125.
Sutherland, A Time to Keep, p. 101.
Archives
Anon., Duties and Emoluments of Police Surgeon, Edinburgh: Pamphlet Collection of the Royal College of Physicians, c. 1847, 1–4.
Forensic Medicine: Volume of Notes on Forensic Medicine from Lectures Delivered, C. 1906 by Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn, Physician, While Professor of Forensic Medicine at Edinburgh University, 1897–1906, Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, 1906, GB 233/MS.19321.
Precognition Against Ann McQue for the Crime of Child Murder at York Place, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1860, GB234/AD14/60/260.
Precognition Against Edward Pratt Evatt for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1882, GB234/AD14/82/41.
Precognition Against Jessie Peattie for the Crime of Child Murder, Edinburgh, National Records of Scotland, 1882, GB234/AD14/82/47.
Precognition Against John Adamson for the Crime of Murder at 39 Potterrow, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1902, GB234/AD15/02/22.
Precognition Against John Walker for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish at Torphichen Village, Linlithgow, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1874, GB234/AD14/74/307.
Precognition Against John Webster, John Webster for the Crime of Murder at Newtown Hotel, Southmuir of Kirriemuir, Forfarshire, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1891, GB234/AD14/91/154.
Print of Declarations and Reports of Experts in the Trial of Eugene Marie Chantrelle for Murder in Trial Papers Relating to Eugene Marie Chantrelle for the Crime of Murder at 81a George Street, Edinburgh. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1878, GB234/JC26/1878/296/15.
Trial Papers Relating to Edward Pratt Evatt for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1882, GB234/JC26/1882/316.
Trial Papers Relating to John Walker for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish at Torphichen Village, Linlithgow. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1874, GB234/JC26/1874/400.
Trial Papers Relating to William King for the Crime of Rape and Assault with Intent to Ravish. Tried at High Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 1876, GB234/JC26/1876/313.
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Couzens, KA. (2020). The Police Surgeon, Medico-Legal Networks and Criminal Investigation in Victorian Scotland. In: Adam, A. (eds) Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850. Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28837-2_6
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