Page:The Art of Cross-Examination.djvu/97

 The attorney for the plaintiff, Mirabeau L. Towns of Brooklyn, had evidently correctly "sized up" the particular jury who were to decide his case, and proceeded to cross-examine the doctor in rhyme, which the learned physician, absorbed in his task of defending himself, did not notice until the laughter of the jury advised him that he was being made ridiculous.

Mr. Towns arose and said:—

Q. "Now, doctor, please listen to me. You say for the sake of a modest fee you examined the plaintiff most carefully?"

A. "I tried to do my duty, sir."

Q. "But you saw no more than you wanted to see?"

A. "What do you mean, sir?"

Q. "Well, you laid your head upon her chest?"

A. "I did."

Q. "That was a most delightful test?"

A. "Well, it is the common way of ascertaining if there is anything abnormal in the lungs."

Q. "And you mean to say, doctor, that if your ears are as good as mine, and with your knowledge of medicine, a mangled pleura's rale and rattle you'd hear as plain as guns in battle?"

A. "I mean to say this, and no more,—that it would be impossible, if a person was suffering from a lacerated pleura, for me not to detect it by the test I made."

Q. "Now, you did this most carefully?"

A. "I did."