AUTOPSY

autopsy (aw-top-see).1. An examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death, esp.

in a criminal in-vestigation. — Also termed postmortem; necropsy. [Cases: Coroners    14. C.J.S.

Coroners and Medical Examiners § 16.] 2. The evidence of one’s own senses.

“To a rational man of perfect organization, … the best and highest proof of which any fact is

susceptible is the evidence of his own senses. Hence autopsy, or the evidence of one’s own senses,

furnishes  the  strongest  probability  and  indeed  the  only  perfect  and  indubitable  certainty  of  the

existence  of  any  sensible  fact.”  Gentry  v.  McMinnis,  3  Dana  382  (1835)(as  quoted  in  John  H.

Wigmore, A Students’ Textbook of the Law of Evidence 214 (1935)).[Blacks Law 8th]