Am.  Jour.  Pharni. ) 
January,  1905.  / 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
49 
In  considering  the  question  of  expert  testimony,  Mr.  Wilbert  said 
that  he  had  found  that  one  way  of  keeping  out  of  court  was  to  in- 
sist on  telling  the  truth. 
Dr.  Marshall  said  that  Dr.  Cohen  had  made  a  very  clear  statement 
of  affairs  here,  but  fortunately  it  did  not  apply  to  countries  abroad,  as 
there  the  experts  are  selected  by  the  state.  He  said  that  it  was  un  or- 
tunate  that  in  this  country  people  sometimes  testi  y  as  experts  who 
are  not  qualified  to  do  so,  and  in  this  connection  he  related  an 
instance  of  a  man  making  a  pathological  examination  who  was  not 
a  toxicologist  at  all,  and  said  that  his  testimony  might  be  taken  as 
equal  to  that  of  the  most  eminent  toxicologist.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  said  that  in  this  day  it  was  impossible  to  know  all  the  sciences, 
and  in  a  toxicological  examination  a  chemist  might  be  sneered  at 
because  it  was  his  first  case,  and  yet  be  able  to  make  a  correct  analysis. 
Mr.  Beringer  said  that  attorneys  often  interfere  with  experts  by 
not  allowing  them  to  explain  their  answers,  insisting  instead  that 
they  answer  simply  categorically  yes  and  no. 
Dr.  Marshall  referred  to  the  danger  of  publishing  as  positive 
deductions  the  results  of  incomplete  and  unconfirmed  investigation, 
and  cited  that  several  years  ago  a  young  student  in  one  of  the 
Universities  had  published  a  paper,  in  which  he  stated  that  it  "  was 
impossible  to  recover  administered  strychnine  in  the  intestines,  claim- 
ing that  it  was  destroyed  in  the  alimentary  canal."  This  damaging 
and  erroneous  statement  had  been  given  wide  circulation.  The 
tault  was  that  the  student  had  not  adopted  a  method  that  would 
isolate  the  alkaloid,  and  on  subsequently  repeating  the  work  by 
another  method  suggested  to  him  by  Dr.  Marshall  he  had  success- 
fully separated  the  strychnine  and  had  been  compelled  to  publish  a 
correction  of  his  first  paper. 
In  this  connection  Mr.  Beringer  exhibited  a  specimen  of  alkaloid 
strychnine,  recovered  from  a  portion  of  the  intestines  in  the  Wood- 
ward case,  recorded  by  Dr.  Marshall  in  American  Medicine,  June 
i  8,  1904. 
On  motion  of  William  Mclntyre  a  special  vote  of  thanks  was 
tendered  Dr.  Cohen,  for  his  able  and  interesting  address. 
Florence  Yaple,  Secretary  pro  tern. 
It  having  been  the  desire  of  some  of  the  members  to  hold  a  few 
of  the  Pharmaceutical  Meetings  in  the  evening,  the  third  of  the 
