Day 014 - 20 Jul 94 - Page 59
1 and time again one has had medical articles quoted which,
when you look at them, do not actually say what the
2 witness says they said. This is no allegation against
Professor Wheelock; it is just force of experience.
3
MR. RAMPTON: I say, with some confidence, that this came in by
4 a side wind, so far as Professor Wheelock is concerned,
because the reference is really Dr. Arnott's one. I say
5 it with some confidence having read every single paper of
the 24 or so attached that he has attached to his
6 statement, but your Lordship's proposition does not hold
good in this particular case. I can make efforts to try
7 to find that Finnish paper. It is not, so far as can I
tell, referred to directly by Dr. Arnott in his report.
8
MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. The consequence really is this, that in
9 so far as an article is -- I am not going to make a
generalisation, but in so far as Professor Wheelock has
10 referred to those two papers to support a view which he
himself has expressed, I am unlikely to attach any weight
11 to the reference to the paper unless the paper has been
seen.
12
MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that raises this difficulty, that almost
13 all these learned papers upon which Dr. Arnott, for
example, relies themselves refer to or rely on anything
14 from 10 to 60 -----
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I am not seeing it as the same
situation. Maybe I have misunderstood you. There has
16 been a specific reference to a specific paper.
17 MR. RAMPTON: I know that, but my problem, this is not meant in
the least bit disrespectfully, is one of logic. If
18 Professor Wheelock says that he has read something and it
says such and such, and your Lordship is not inclined to
19 attach any weight to it without seeing the piece of paper
he refers to, the same argument must apply by parity of
20 reasoning to any statement contained in any of these
written papers which make reference to other papers which
21 are not included in the material before the court, which
in its turn totally invalidates what the witness who
22 relies on the learned papers says in his report.
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think there may be that difficulty, if one
is going to be strictly logical about it, but somewhere
24 there comes in a matter of judgment as to where one is
going to be absolutely strict about things, and where one
25 is going to say: No, that is good enough. My feeling at
the moment is that if there is a specific reference to a
26 specific paper dealing with a specific sample, it ought to
be produced.
27
MR. RAMPTON: I will readily concede the point on the grounds
28 of judgment.
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I remember when I was at the Bar the
irritation one felt when all of a sudden an expert witness
30 -- which again is not a reference to Professor Wheelock,
but one did not know oneself whether he was being
