DRUNKENNESS TESTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22179, 5 August 1935, Page 6

DRUNKENNESS TESTS

EVIDENCE OF A DOCTOR BENEFIT OF TOE DOUBT In the Sydney Police Court recently medical evidence regarding degrees of drunkenness and tests for drunkenness was given by a doctor at the hearing of a 6ase against a man who had been charged with having driven a vehicle in Alison Road, Rand wick, while ■under the influence of liquor. Sergeant Cullen said that the man in question was found asleep in his car. The police awakened him and when he started the car it jumped forward and nearly collided with Constable Butcher. He said that when defendant got out of the car he staggered in the roadway. Dr. Godfrey Harris detailed the tests tc which he - had put the defendant. He said that one of his tests included making the defendant stretch his hands and arms at right-angles to the body and touch the tip of his nose with whichever hand the doctor commanded. The defendant did not know which hand or which finger would be chosen. "When 'a' man is confused with alcohol," explained Dr. Harris, "there would be an inclination to delay in responding or to use the wrong hand or finger." In the case before the Court the response had been prompt and accurate. As a further test, said Dr. Harris, he had made the man stand with his eyes closed and heels together. fhen he had ordered the man to rise on his toes''and to sit on his heels, and later to walk in a straight line across the cells, and to turn suddenly. In turning, or changing direction at the doctor's' command, he had obeyed without . stumbling or swaying. "That is a point of considerable importance in determining if a man is drunk, because one often finds that, although a man can confidently walk in a straight line, he will stagger in turning,V said Dr. Harris. A still further test, said the doctor, was to make the defendant repeat a series of figures backward- This lie did on three ocjasionv Although the man's breath smelt of alcohol. /Dr. Harris said that, as the re.-ult of his examination, ho had come to the conclusion that the man was tired out. and slightly excited because of the circumstances in which he had found himself, but was not under the influence of alcohol within the legal sense of the term. In reply to Mr. Williams, S<.M., Dr. Harris said that the man's condition, as described by the police, .vas consistent with nervous exhaustion or alcohol. / But if he had been so far tinder the influence at the tine of his arrest for the alcohol to he responsible for, his behaviour, he would have shown definite symptoms of alcoholism at tho timo of his examination in the cells. The jmagistrate said that there was sufficient doubt in the matter, and ho discharged tho defendant.