THE THAW CASE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8386, 22 March 1907, Page 3

THE THAW CASE.

An interesting instance of the hopeless confusion to which a clever lawyer can reduce a weak professional witness occurred in the opening \ days of the Thaw case in New York. The defence called Dr. C. H. Wiley, a Pittsburg specialist in mental diseases, to support the l plea of insanity. He not only said he considered the shooting of White by Thaw was the act of an insane man, but he related 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 admit that he did not know anything of insanity as recognised by the law of New York State. Then he induced the witness to advance the opinion that the deduction of faulty conclusions by imperfect reasoning from false premises was one definition of insanity, and wanted to know whether, according to that definition, Christian scientists, and the greater part of the population, could not be proved to be insane. Mr Jerome then took Thaw's actions on the night cf the murder step by step, and asked the expert if each act was a sign of insanity. Dr. Wiley became more and more confused, and finally Mr Jerome forced him to admit that Thaw's conduct in the tramcar was merely noisy ill-temper, and that his conduct in shooting White was not in itself evidence of insanity. Then counsel proceeded to impugn the witness' medical knowledge. "Doctor, does the cardiac nerve connect directly with the cerebellum?" ■ Witness hesitated. "Well, maybe you' can tell us if the pneumogastric nerve joins the spinal column in the lumbar circle or the dorsal region?" "The dorsal region," replied witness, after a few moments' thought. "Where is the dorsal region?" "I ha\te not read much on that." "Oh, well, never mind. Tell me if it is , not a fact that the pneumogastric and cardiac nerves are one and the same thing?" "That may be," was the reply. "Do you know of the Argyll Robertson test of light?" "Yes," said Dr. Wiley innocently. "Did you ever . hear of such a thing before I asked the question?" the prosecutor asked. Dr. Wiley hesitated, but Mr Jerome did not. *'Where in any book in the whole world did you ever read anything about the Argyll Robertson light test?" but Dr. Wiley did not reply. "Is Argyll Robertson one man or two?" Mr Jerome insisted. *'l think two," said the perspiring expert. "As a matter of fact he is only one man," said Mr Jerome quietly turning to the jury. The exhibition was so pitiable that that night the command of the legal forces for the defence was placed in new hands.