Day 052 - 21 Nov 94 - Page 37
1 really very difficult indeed for the Defendants to maintain
2 that they were not aware what was the case which the
3 Plaintiffs have been advancing against them for some very
4 considerable period of time; what was the case which, if
5 they wanted to have a defence, it was likely -- not
6 necessarily but likely -- they would have to raise against
7 the Plaintiffs.
8
9 My Lord, there is another passage on page 31 which may be
10 helpful in this context, the same day, day 16 -- not very
11 far into the trial, as it happens -- Mr. Morris is on his
12 feet and Mr. Morris says at the top of page 31, line 2:
13 "No. We are talking about diet, not a single meal."
14 Professor Wheelock: "I was quite careful in the way that
15 I worded that, because what I do accept (in much the same
16 way as Doll and Peto) is that diet does play an important
17 role in the development of these degenerative diseases.
18 But then again, as you read out yourself, the precise role
19 of the different components in the diet is very difficult
20 to elucidate. So we may be pretty sure that diet is a
21 factor in the development of, shall we say, the different
22 cancers, but being able to pin point precisely what is in
23 the diet is responsible for that is another matter
24 altogether."
25
26 Then Mr. Morris shows that he fully appreciates the
27 difficult problem the Defendants face in the distinction
28 between diet and cancer and diet and heart disease because
29 he asks this question: "You are pretty certain, are you
30 not, that heart disease comes from high saturated fat
31 content -- you admitted that yesterday?" "I go along with
32 that, yes."
33
34 So, any suggestion that the Defendants are surprised by a
35 distinction which I make today (and have made I think on
36 previous occasions) between the causal relationship between
37 diet and heart and diet and cancer is simply not
38 acceptable. Here is Mr. Morris himself picking up on
39 something Professor Wheelock has said previously to that
40 very same effect; an acceptance by Professor Wheelock (and
41 I think also some way by Dr. Arnott) that there is, indeed,
42 an acceptance of such a relationship in relation to heart
43 disease but indeed not in relation to cancer.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. When I referred before the adjournment
46 to Professor Crawford putting in the same basket, the
47 phrase I should have used was that there was a common
48 denominator. That was, I think, the phrase he used.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I do not think he would assert there was
51 a common denominator; he said that there might -----
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When he was canvassing whether there might be
54 one or not.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. My Lord, I should say this, perhaps, at this
57 stage: As perhaps your Lordship has understood, I am not a
58 great one for short term tactical advantage achieved by
59 technical points. If your Lordship should feel it helpful
60 in due course that Dr. Arnott should be recalled (although
