Day 052 - 21 Nov 94 - Page 40
1 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. What happened was that, if I have to give an
2 account of the delay which might be thought appropriate,
3 that I think there was a week off.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There was, the last week in September.
6
7 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. Mr. Atkinson took it into his head (and
8 I mean that with every compliment to him) to have another
9 look at the pleadings. When he did, he said: "Hoi", and
10 I am summarising because he does not use words like that,
11 "this meaning about nutrition and the other one about
12 animals does not truly represent the case that we have been
13 presenting in court". It was on that basis that we decided
14 we need to apply to your Lordship for leave to amend.
15
16 It follows from that that what I am about to show your
17 Lordship's precedes notification of the proposed amendment
18 to the Defendants which, if I am right, plainly
19 demonstrates they were fully alive to what the true issue
20 in the case was. My Lord, I believe we resumed on
21 12th September, and that it was on that day that Dr. Arnott
22 reappeared to be cross-examined by the Defendants. The
23 cross-examination began on page 4 of the transcript for
24 that day which I think is day 22 or something like that, at
25 any rate, not by present standards very far into the case.
26
27 At the very beginning of the cross-examination which in its
28 first part was conducted by Ms. Steel it becomes apparent
29 that she at least and, as one can later see, Mr. Morris as
30 well appreciated without any shadow of a doubt what was the
31 reason why Dr. Arnott had been called and what it was that
32 was the effect of his evidence.
33
34 Ms steel said at line 10: "I wanted to go back over a bit
35 of what you have been involved in, your work and experience
36 and books that you have been involved in writing. Is it
37 fair to say, by and large, that you have concentrated on
38 treatment rather than research into causes, prevention?"
39 "That is only partly true", says Dr. Arnott. At the end
40 of his answer he says -- I will read the whole of it:
41 "That is only partly true. I am very much concerned with
42 treatment, that is absolutely right. But in order to treat
43 patients, one has to have some understanding about the
44 possible causation and the mechanisms by which causative
45 agents amy give rise to cancer because treatment part of
46 treatment, is prevention, if one can, and part of treatment
47 is also removing various factors which may be responsible
48 for causing the cancer; it is not just the administration
49 of anti-cancer type treatment."
50
51 My Lord, I confidently say that something like 90 per cent
52 of the rest of the cross-examination by both the Defendants
53 is devoted to that very question, causation, or, if one
54 likes, aetiology, in relation to cancer of the bowel,
55 cancer of the breast and, to some small, other kinds of
56 cancer.
57
58 Your Lordship may remember quite vividly a passage in
59 Ms. Steel's cross-examination in which she attempted to
60 persuade Dr. Arnott that, really, no distinction was to be
