William Hunter died on the 30th March, 1783. This paper was posthumously read to the Medical Society on July 14 of the same year, and subsequently appeared in Medical Observations and Inquiries (vol. 6, 1784, pp. 266-290), the publication of the Society of Physicians in London.  A copy of the original volume is shelved at Sp Coll Hunterian Add. 237. The text digitised here is a reprint of Hunter's paper published in 1836 in a volume concerning infanticide by William Cummin, The proofs of infanticide considered. As well as reproducing Hunter's paper in full, this book includes Cummin's responses to and criticism of Hunter's work, as well as a lengthy summary of medico-legal facts connected with infanticide, examining the medicial evidence required to show whther or not an infant was born alive, and whether death was occasioned by natural causes or violence. 

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