On the Uncertainty of the Signs of Murder in the Case of Bastard Children

This is an extraordinary document from the birth of forensic medicine. William Hunter, the renowned anatomist and pioneer of obstetric science, turns his meticulous attention to one of the most tragic corners of 18th-century justice: the case of the dead bastard child. In an era when women were hanged on the slightest suspicion of infanticide, Hunter applies his exacting scientific mind to a question that would save lives: how can we actually know whether a newborn was murdered, or died from natural causes, or perished by accident? The result is a treatise that is both a forensic landmark and a quietly radical act of compassion. Hunter exposes how easily shame, social panic, and sloppy medical examination could send a desperate, unwed mother to the gallows. He argues for careful observation over assumption, for science over superstition, and for mercy over moral panic. Few texts from this era advocate so forcefully for women abandoned by the law.