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

Prev Next Index