UNDER THE HARROW.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13433, 26 March 1907, Page 5

UNDER THE HARROW.

An interesting' instanco of tho 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 plea of insanity. He not only said he considered the shooting of White by Thaw 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 mgnth 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 tie witness to advance the opinion that lie deduction of faulty conclusions by imperfect reasoning from false premises was one* definition of insanity, aiid wanted to know whether, according to that definition, Christian Scientists, and the greater part of the populat : on could not be proved to be insane. Mr Jerome then took Thaw's actions on x\ c night of 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 Wnite was not in itself evidence of insanity. Then counsel proceeded to impugn the witness's medical knowledge. "Doctor, does the cardiac nerve connect directly with the cerebellum?" ' Witness hesitated. "Weil, may, be you can tell us if the pneumqgastric ' nerve ' jdins the spinal column in the lumbar circle or the dorsal'region'?" "The dorsal region," replied the witness after a few. moments' thought. "Where 'is the dorsal region?" "I have 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." "They 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 £ thing before I asked the question?" the prosecutor asked- Dr. Wiley hesitated, but. Mr Jerome did riot.- "Where in any book in God's whole world did you ever read anything about the Argyll Robertson . £est&".he shouted;- but $)rv Wiley did' not reply. "Is Argyll /■Robertson one man or two?" Mr Jerome insisted. "I 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.