New-York daily tribune., 1858-02-17

In most If not In all the States, the law requires
the pltadings to he in the English language; and
We have known smart and impetuous young law
yer TO be suited because the ardor OF drafting
bis declaration he had used Arabic figures. He
thought it to be very hard, and his client thought
il to be much harder but his Honor was inexcra-
bic, ard the defendant took his costs. This was
we admit carrying agood rule to the extreme; but
as Professor of Chemistry was wont, after the
ignomnous failure Of on experiment, to remark to
his half-suffocated class-the principle remains.
There is no reason why the proceedings before a
Jury should be impeded by the introduction of unin-
tellisible law Latin or barbarOus law French.
And truth to cay, we are pretty well rid of the
nuisance in the Courts; albeit it survives with the
invincble tenacity of pedantry in the books. What
ever may be expressed in dead language may with
sufficient accuracy be expressed in living one;
AID il is perfectly absurd to bother and bambOozle
we'll meaning jurymen with lingo to their un-
learned ears quite incomprehensble. The unknown
tongue may inspire awe, but can hardly promote
an intelligent understanding of the case. The
twelve good men and true may reverence, but they
are not left in a condition to reason.
The place ncourt, however, in which pedantry has
taken sanctuary is the witness-box. Medical men,
when called, seem always to think it necessary to
impress Judge and Jury with profound sense Of
the dignity of learning BY airing the Latin which
they learned when walking the hospitals, and by
using language perfectly familiar to them, but an
absolute jsrgon to their hearers. They give us the
Latin for brain, throat, spine and nose; for back
bone, and breast-bone, and thigh-bone, and Shin
bone; for muscle and membrane, fur gland, tendon
and nerve. We have I" "cerebrum," "cranium,"
"jugulum," "dorsalis," "sternum," "femur,"
&C.. &c. Instead Of plainly saying to the jury
that they gave to the deceased mercury, they viii
say that they exhibited" Pl. Hydrarg. This
practice is a relic Of the infancy of the science,
just as is the custom Of writing prescriptions in
bob-tailed Latin and prefxing thereto the sign of
the planet Jupiter, which many simple persons
mistake for the initial letter of Recipe" In this
way modern practitioners suppose that they init.
matey connect themselves with Galen and even
with Hippocrates; and in this way many patients
are imposed upon, sometir 70, We suppose for their
good. 1t may be very proper to give patient
brown bread pill but he would not be very likely
to take it, unless it we're called Pill. pam fuse.
But i is of the manner in which testimony is
given in the criminal Courts that We intend espe-
ciaIly to speak. This is matter Of the utmost
importance to society. In the preliminary investi.
CATION of the causes of sudden death, where the
testimony Of others is not explicit and conclusive,
that of the medical man is Of the highest import
ance, because in many instances, ss in cases Of
poisoning or of questionable personal identity it is
the sole connecting chain which binds together the
fragments of circumstantial evidence. 1t should
therefore be given with the utmost clesrness and
unincumbered by bewildering techmcalities. The
physician does not 60 before the Jury to display his
learning or to make al impression of his infaibity.
He is called to state, as simply, as ucidly and as
intellgbly as possible, the result of his exsmins.
tiop the effects which would follow certain causes,
and, as an expert, his own opinion Of the case. In
doing this il is easy to soc that be need not resort
to, nay, that he had better avoid scientific terms.
If be were to meet non-professional friend in the
street and were asked to give some account of the
matter, he would do so in the plainest and most
satisfactory terms. 1t is only when he is before
public tribunal that he is learned and Oracular.
These remarks are partly suggested BY the medi-
cal testimony before the Coroners Jury in Brook
yn called TO investigate the death of Mr.. Simon.
on. DR.. Ayres was the first physician called. He
read to the Jury report of the post-mortem ex.
animation. In this, men who probably never read
medical book in their lives, were informed that
there was "ecchymosis upon the right side of the
"upper lip"-that there was "a wound extend.
:" ing from the internal edge Of the left eyebrow
over the orbitsr region toward the root Of the
lose, and terminating at the Junction of the nasal
bones with the internal angular process of the
frontal bone"-that there was "a wound about
two lines in diameter over the lachymal sac of
" the same eye that "a probe passed through
:" these wounds easily communicated with the
ethnoid cells that I" there were indications of
" hemorrhage from the left ear"-that there was
" extravasation of blood underneath and into the
" substance Of the temporal muscle Of the left
" side." There was in the report also some in.
formation about " the petrous portion of tho TEN.
" porsl one"-about the "foramen laceum
L" medias about - the left subpsrietal and tem-
] poral regions about L" the dsra mater" How
much all this enlightened the Jury We leave the
reader, learned or unlearDed, to Judge.
We are willing to admit that the physicians who
followed delivered their testimony in a style much
more inteleible but it was principally confined to
the expression Of opinions founded upon the above