Current practice in forensic medicine.

Current practice in forensic medicine.

John Gall, Jason Payne-James, editors. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 (327 pp, $120.00). ISBN 9780470744871.

Recent times have seen a growing interest in forensic medicine among members of the public, although not necessarily among medical practitioners. An involvement in forensic medicine requires more than just a passing interest, and this publication examines aspects of the discipline that apply to both the living and the dead.

The editors are both specialists in the field. John Gall is a forensic physician with the Victorian Paediatric Forensic Medical Service in Melbourne and Jason Payne-James is a forensic physician based in the United Kingdom and is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forensic & Legal Medicine. In this book, they cover many areas of clinical forensic medicine and also touch on aviation disasters, but not toxicology.

At least once in their careers doctors are likely to be called upon to give evidence in court. This book includes excellent instructions on how to prepare reports for medicolegal cases. For this alone it is a worthwhile reference text for a medical practitioner.

For those who practise forensic medicine relating to the living, as in the case of sexual assault, this book should be required reading — it covers essential areas, such as how to assess, describe and interpret injuries, and how to collect specimens for biological or toxicological purposes.

The book goes into some detail about the proper classification and description of wounds. However, it cautions against being too robust in attributing causes for wounds in medicolegal cases unless practitioners have the experience to back their judgement.

The editors of this text have compiled an authoritative review of the topic, with contributions from leading international experts in the field. They provide enough detail about the forensic sciences to give practitioners some insight into these areas without attempting to turn them into experts.