Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-12-02
Books, BookiSh
People and Things
LAW AND MEDICINE.

DR.. Kenneth w. MilliCan in the st
Louis Medical Review" (Oct. 1D, has
sensible word to say about the mat.
ter touched upon ~ the Los Angeles
Judge who remarked: ANY one can
get a doctors certificate"
According to the Southern Califor.
MIA Practitioner for July. a judge of
the Los Angeles Superior Court. on he.
ing told that the plaintiffs chief wit.
ness was Ill and that he could get n
doctors certificate to that effect re-
piled: Yes, suppose you can. 1t
tors certificate can get one. do not
mean to say anything against the ply.
siCians. because in their minds every
one has something the matter with
them. II Is their business to think
people are sick
THE ideal Office of the lawyer is not
to wrest the law in favor of either par.
ty, but to see that II Is so interpreted
that no injustice Is done to the liti.
giant, whether prosecutor or defend.
ant. that no material facts tending to
establish guilt or innocence. as justice
demands, are omitted, and Contrari'
wise, that nothing passes for fact in
evidence which cannot he substantial.
ed. The counsel for the prosecution
and the defense respectively are not
CthiCaliy opponents, but Coadjutors,
each charged on the principle of divi.
eli NJ laI la, n
side of a problem, the RICH aim of each
being, not the conviction or aCQuittal
Of that insignificant quantity in the
CG7C. the prisoner at the bar. not the
v'!nnirT Of q onC.sidcd triumph. but
tac performance Of as nearly perfect
Justice as human impcrfcction can at.
tain.
yet, IL such were the actual prac.
tiCe, lawyers would not glory in having
got of some prisoners. of whose
guilt there could never be the shadow
of doubt; and worse. OF Conyicting
one about whose guilt to put 1t mild.
! y, there Is every reasonable doubt.
AS a matter OF fact. the lawyer has no
conjunction in defending man he
| knows to be guilty-not with the view
of merely protecting him against in
| justice or undue severity. but for the
avowed purpose of cheating justice by
| getting him of IL possible: while pub.
/ lie prosecutors (to saw nothing of
/ plaintiffs counsel in civil Cases) who
at least, ought to he judicial in their
advocacy are generally notorious for
I endcavOring to fix the crime upon some
one, and straining every nerve to Sc.
cure Il conviction, rather than for
seeking impartially to make clear all
the evidence against the prisoner
setting down naught in malice and ex.
tenuating naught
And while IL Is frankly admitted
that on promotion to the bench, the
lawyer very generally does endeavor,
and usually with praiseworthy results,
to divest himself of the sophistry of
the advocate, and to assume the impair.
TALLY Of the just judge, II is none the
less an act of temerity in him, know
ing the glass house in which he so
recently lived and to which, in this
country at least, he is likely so soon to
return, to cast stones at the members
Of another profession of at least equal.
ly high idea. who, even II many. per.
haps most, of them do not live up to II,
do not deny their ideal, attempting to
make the worse appear the better
way"
To this the Bulletin BoOkman would