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limb. The doctor makes the suggested distinction 

 in a practical way ; accepting the evidence that the 

 patient feels pain, a d dismissing the syntax that 

 the pain is in the toes, he turns his attention at once 

 to the dressings of the wound. Another illustration 

 of the dependence of evidence upon syntaxis has 

 been given at the beginning of Section I. 



As a general rule, then, no evidence of any scien- 

 tific value consists entirely of records of the direct 

 sensations of the witness : and farther than this, it will 

 be found in practice that direct sensations, though 

 always implied, are seldom explicitly mentioned, 

 except in reference to disease. When evidence 

 does contain a statement as to direct sensation, the 

 question arises whether this is the best description 

 of the actual sensation which the particular witness 

 can offer. It is generally recognised that the basis 

 for an answer to this question is to be obtained by 

 noting the looks and actions of the witness as well 

 as his words ; the criterion is to be applied by 

 forming the simplest and most direct syntax which 

 combines these elements with reminiscences of 

 previous experience relating to the case ; reminis- 

 cences, for instance, in medical practice of the usual 

 symptoms of any disease from which the witness 

 might be suffering. Thus the statements of begging 

 impostors and malingerers are often to be rejected 

 as being wholly false, while the exaggerated state- 

 ments made by patients suffering from hysteria, or 



