Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/673

Rh attorney; lie testifies to matters which involve more than bare facts, which require special training, and reach out into points of delicate judgment, careful interpretations of evidence, and statements of what is or is not received as scientific opinion. The ordinary witness is well within the range of experience of every man on the jury; the expert speaks of regions into which the jurors have never entered. He testifies, but he also cross-examines, albeit by proxy: for he supplies the lawyers on the same side with himself with questions for the confounding of his adversary. The attorney is merely a legal expert who argues a case for his client, but is not sworn to speak the truth; the expert witness argues, but under an oath which admits of reservations. The two are different in matters of form, but not in matters of practice. They are, in short, colleagues.

Now in the organization of the courts the legal elements have a position of peculiar advantage. First, there are the opposing lawyers, who were once examined for admission to the bar, and who may be disbarred for unworthy or unprofessional conduct. Each argues his case in favor of his client, raising a legal fog or clearing away confusion according to which policy is the better. But over them is the bench, with its trained experts sitting in judgment on the case, deciding all principles of law as controversy arises, listening to and weighing the arguments, and finally, in jury trials, addressing a charge to the jury. The legal questions are discussed by legal experts, and decided by impartial legal arbiters; but the scientific problems which come before a court are subjected to no such arbitration. Just here a line of reform is plainly indicated—not as to the final settlement of scientific questions, of course, but at least as to their proper presentation before judges and juries. Between opposing experts only experts can decide.

Two measures at once suggest themselves: First, that all experts who desire court-practice should be registered, or go through some form of admission to practice, in such a way as to certify in a measure to their having received a proper scientific training. The time of the courts should not be wasted by scientific dabblers or amateurs. Experts should also be liable to something like disbarment for sufficient cause. Secondly, whenever the parties to a suit bring in expert testimony, the court itself should have the right to summon other experts, who, standing in a semi-judicial and non-partisan position, could listen to evidence and arguments, weigh both, and aid the judges either in the preparation of their opinion, or in framing their charge to the jury. So, just as the legal experts pass upon matters of law, the scientific experts would pass upon matters of science, and the results could not be other than favorable. Pretenders, getting less easily before the courts.