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

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