UNDER THE HARROW.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8769, 22 March 1907, Page 4

UNDER THE HARROW.

An interesting instance of the hopeless confusion to which a clever lawyer can reduce a ■weak professional witness occurred in the opening dap , of the Thaw case in New Yow:. Ine defence called Dr. 0. H. Wiley, a Pittsburg specialist in mental ens- | oases, to support the plea of insanity Ho not only said he oral-. Xtd the shooting otWMtoJ: Thaw the act" of an insane man, but how in 1905 he saw Thaw create a disturbance in a tramcar because he could not get a curtain adjusted to his liking, conduct which indicated insanity. Mr Jerome, the prosecutor, had spent a month reading up mental diseases, and he had by him a leading expert on the subject. He bowled Dr. Wiley out at once by getting him to gadniit that he did not know anything of insanityas recognised oy the law of New York State. Then he induced the witness to advance 1 the opinion that the deduction ot [faulty conclusions by imperfect reasoning from false premises was one definition . of insanity, and wanted to know whether, according to the definition, Christian scientists, and the greater part of the population, could not be proved to be in- { sane Mr Jerome then took inaw s lotions on the night of the murder step by step, and asked the expert U each act was a sign of insanity. Dr. Wilev became more and more confused, and finally Mr Jerome forced him to admit that Thaw's conduct in the tramcar was merely noisy illtemper, and that Mb .condiict m I shooting White was not in itself evidence of isannity. The counsel proceeded to impugn the witaoss medi-

cal knowledge. "Doctor, does tiie cardiac nerve connect directly witli the cerebellum?" Witness hesitated. "Well, may be you can tell us if _th~ pneumogastric nerve joins the spinal column in the lumbar circle, or tlio dorsal region?" "The clonal reeion." replied witness after a few foments' Uought. "Where is the dorsal region?" I have not read much on that." "Oh, well, ne/ei mind. Tell me if it is not a fact that the pneumogastric and. cardiac nerves are one and the-same thing. "They may be," was the reply. "Do you know of the Argyll Rpbert- ; son test of light?" "Yes," said Dr. Wiley innocently. "Did yon ever hear of such a thing before I asked the question?" the prosecutor asked. Dr Wiley hesitated, but Mr Jerome did not. "Whore in any book in God's Wholo world did you ever read anything about the Argyll Robertson test'" he shouted, but Dr. Wiley did not reply. "Is Argyll Robertson one mail or two?" Mr Jerome asked. "I think two," said the: perspiring oxperfc. '' As a matter of faci ho is only one luan," said Mi Jerome, quietly taming to the jury The exhibition was so pitiablo tlia; that night the commKiv 1 . of tho lega forces for tho dofonco was placed n new hands.