Day 039 - 20 Oct 94 - Page 52


     
     1        discussion she is a toxicologist, but more than that, I do
     2        not know.  I was more struck by the content of her
     3        arguments than her personal identity.
     4
     5   Q.   Would you like to highlight the main points?
     6        A.  Well, it seems to me that if you are going to do a
     7        proper study seeking to establish whether or not a
     8        significant proportion of the population may be intolerant
     9        to MSG, you need a proper random cross-section of the
    10        population; whereas, as Dr. Samuels points out at the
    11        bottom paragraph of the first page, there are many groups
    12        who one might have a prime facie reason for thinking that
    13        may react adversely to MSG were systematically excluded
    14        from the study.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  That is people susceptible to allergies,
    17        presumably?
    18        A.  Yes, they were questioned about asthma allergic
    19        syndromes, asthma insensitivity, and so on.  She says
    20        here:  "This screening procedure would have effectively
    21        eliminated anyone who expressed the sympton known as
    22        detoxicity who have been eliminated to anyone sensitive to
    23        MSG".
    24
    25   Q.   Maybe I can save time on this.  So far as I know, Professor
    26        Walker did not refer to the Tarasoff and Kelly reference.
    27        Therefore, in effect, it is not actually evidence in the
    28        case.
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  Dear me.  No, my Lord.  That is absolutely not the
    31        case.  I did not refer Professor Walker to many of his
    32        references.  What he said was -- I do not know what I am
    33        reading from --  "Control studies with monosodium glutamate
    34        itself have discounted that," "that" being Chinese
    35        Restaurant Syndrome, and the Tarasoff study was one of the
    36        studies in his references.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  He did actually mention Tarasoff.
    39
    40   MR. RAMPTON:  It may have been mentioned.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  What I do not understand is how that study can be
    43        evidence if Professor Walker does not refer to it, but that
    44        we have to refer to studies if we want to back up any
    45        statement of Dr. Millstone.  I cannot grasp what the
    46        difference is here.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have to assess the weight of the evidence
    49        at the end of the day.  In doing so, I look at the
    50        particular expertise of the witness.  I look at the extent 
    51        to which it may be supported by particular references, 
    52        I look at the strength of the argument and I come to my own 
    53        conclusion.  It is a composite thing.  It is not a question
    54        of saying:  "This is evidence and that is not".  It is a
    55        question at the end of the day, having heard what you have
    56        to say to me, as to what weight I attach to it.
    57
    58        If I can give an example away from this witness and
    59        Professor Walker, it might be said, I do not know, that
    60        Dr. Barnard was not a medical specialist in the fields he

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