The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-28
New Term Is Introduced By Medical Witness Which Is
 a Puzzle to Jerome
JUSTICE BOWLING ASKS
 QUESTIONS IF EXPERTS
English Physician Testifies That Thaw Is Afflicted With "Maniac-Depress- I've" Insanity, Which Led
 Him To Commit Deed.


 New York, January 27.-The defense closed it's case today with "maniac-de- pressive' insanity as the explanation of the death of Stanford White at the hands of the young Pittsburg million | aire.
 1 Tomorrow the prosecution will begin it's evidence in rebuttal and the case should l go to the jury by Wednesday night or | Thursday noon.
 1 District Attorney Jerome tomorrow morning will apply for the appointment of a commission to take the testimony | of Abraham Hummel who is in the | prison on Blackwels Island and who is said to be too i'll to appear in court. l MT. Littleton of the defense said he would oppose any such action, where upon Justice Bowling announced that if necessary he would go to the island him self tomorrow night in company with the defendant and his counsel to preside at the taking of Hummels testimony
 The jury, it was stated, would not be compelled to take the night trip 1 across the river. Thaw seemed delighted l at the prospect of the outing, even to the grim shores of New York city's penal 1 colony. and smiled broadly at the courts suggestion.
 District Attorney Jerome disappointed a crowded court room when he refrained | from his tactics Of lsst year in bait l ing the experts for the defense, three of. whom. Doctors Wagner, Evans and Jellffe, declared that Thaw at the time he killed Stanford White was suffering from such a defect as to not know the nature or quality of his act or that 1t was wrong. The prosecutor contented himself with drawing from the alienists | the fact that last year they swore 1t was during a "brainstorm' that Thaw ] committed the homicide He also read from the affidavit made by pr. Wagner before the lunacy commission last year, giving conversations had with Thaw in | court which tended to show that the de- | fendant had distinct recollection of oe- currences on the roof garden immediately preceding the tragedy.
 Dowing's Queries.
 It was left to Justice Bowling to make 1 a most important inquiry of the aliens. He desired to know the exact nature of maniac insanity, and if the attacks were likely to recur. He also l asked if a person suffering from this form of insanity would be liable to com | init assaults He learned that it was | recurrent form of mental disorder, the attacks coming suddenly and without l warning, a period of sanity being fol- | lowed by a maniacal outburst then py | period of complete depression and then T t..k1 1lt the presiding judge was securing infor- nation upon which to predicate judicial | action in the event of a verdict of not l guilty on the ground of insanity or of a straight acquittal. Even in this latter | event it was pointed out that Justice | Bowling would have the right to have | Thaw committed to some institution. An English physician, one of the three men of medicine who testified, first gave the name of "maniac-depressive' or sub | acute mania" to Thaw's mental condi- | ton.
 Dr. Sydney Russell Wells of London made the diagnosis during an outbreak | by Thaw in London in 1899. when with | a normal temperature Thaw demanded | that the walls of his rooms in nurs- 1 ing home be town down so that he might have air and that 20 tons of ice be | put in the apartment to cool 1t. MT Littleton's question, which was answered by the three experts, was | complete resume of the evidence with | the exception as District Attorney Je- | rome pointed out, of the testimony of l James Clinch Smith, brother-n-law of l Stanford White, who talked with Thaw | for 15 minutes just before the shooting | on the roof of Madison Square Garden. The question contained some 16,OO0 | words.
 l pr. Bingaman Called. Dr. Charles Francis Bingaman, the | Thaw family physician, of Pittsburg, was | put on the witness stand when court re- | stunned today. pr. Bingaman told of the early symptoms of nervousness in Harry | Thaw, saying he was first called to at | tend the boy when he was years old. | At that time his nervousness often bor- | dered on convulsions. The attacks usually followed childrens disease. Thaw slept badly as child, requiring relay of nurses most of the time.
 Dr. Bingaman said that in the fall or 1903 he was called to attend Harry Thaw | in Pittsburg and treated him for nervous ness and melancholia. This was after Thaws first trip abroad with Evelyn Nes- bit The witness saw Thaw several times in the Tombs after his arrest and the de- fendant always referred to the Madison Square garden tragedy as an "act of | Providence"
 Thaw,s acts in the prison impressed the
 witness as irrational. It was of Dr. Bin
 gaman that District Attorney Jerome said | at the last trial. when Thaw's mental | condition was under investigation:
 q had rather have the testimony of an
 old practitioner like this than all the ex-
 perts you could put upon the stand
 The prosecutor's cross-examination to- | day was very brief and courteous.
 London Doctor Called.
 
 foreign witness, Dr. Sydney Russell Wells | of London. who was called to attend
 Thaw in the English capital in the early
 part of 1899.
 "Mr Thaw was in a very nervous con-