46 
INTRODUCTION. 
dwelt upon its relations to the science of obstetrics in his edition of the work of 
Dr. Denman. Dr. Blatchford of Troy, in 1817, published an essay on feigned 
diseases, which contains the results of much curious observation. T. Romeyn 
Beck and John B. Beck have given us, under the name of the former, a volume 
on the science of medical jurisprudence, which has contributed to modify, in 
many important features, our code of criminal law; and is admitted in Europe 
to be the best work on the subject written in our language, and to display more 
discriminating and patient research, free from ostentation of learning, than any 
work in the same department now extant. 
The periodical medical journals merit at least a passing notice. The Medical 
Repository was begun by Drs. Smith, Mitchill and Miller, in 1797, and con¬ 
tinued through twenty-three annual volumes. The American Medical and Phi¬ 
losophical Register appeared in 1810, and was conducted by Dr. Hosack and 
Dr. Francis. The New-York Medical and Philosophical Journal was published 
in 1809 and the two succeeding years, under the superintendence of Dr. Smith, 
Dr. De Witt and Dr. Macneven. The New-York Medical and Physical Jour¬ 
nal was commenced in 1822, and continued several years, by Drs. Francis, Beck 
and Dyckman. The New-York Medical and Surgical Journal, extending to 
four volumes, was published anonymously in 1840 and ’41. The New-York 
Medical Gazette is a contemporaneous work.* 
So intimate has been the connection between political science and jurispru¬ 
dence, and so much have the members of the legal profession been identified 
with the patriots and statesmen who have overthrown a system incompatible with 
the development of the state, and perfected a republican government in its place, 
that we shall not assign to the bar a distinct place in these notes, but shall occa¬ 
sionally advert to its condition and progress in a brief sketch of the political his¬ 
tory of the state. 
As we have seen, the germ of New-York was a shoot from a commercial 
aristocracy. The Dutch, who had no popular liberty nor representative legisla- 
* Notes concerning Surgery and Physiology were furnished by Thomas Hun, M.D. 
