Étude medico-légale sur l’infanticide

Paris: Bailliere, 1868. With 2 full-page and 1 folding stipple engraved plates, 2 completed in fine contemporary hand-color. Contemporary half gilt green sheep over marbled boards, old manuscript shelf labels, bookbinder ticket affixed to the front pastedown, stamps of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In good condition. First edition of this forensic analysis of infanticide. The text describes ways of determining if a newborn was born alive, different forms of infanticide (suffocation, head injury, strangulation, drowning, discarding in trash, fire), and the criminal pathology of mothers who kill their babies. It includes instructions for performing autopsies. The final section is comprised of case studies. The plates at the end of the volume show the organs and bones of babies who were both stillborn and killed after birth.