The Washington herald., 1922-07-23
Facts, and Only Facts, Wanted.


i of magic about it. Hypnotsm mental
telepathy spirituasm, etc, are barred, of course,
from any respectable court. Judges are, they
should be, the last in the world to recognize
evidence the OF which any doubt what
soever can be cast Until fact is scli-evident it
can have no standing before the judiciary.
Hence the sphygmomanometer which many
reputable scientists declare detect whether a
witness is telling the truth lying, has been
barred in District Of Columbia murder trial.
Scientists convinced of the practicabty OF this
apparatus will be inclined to scoff at Chief Justice
McCoy's decision 1t apparently is constructed on
scientific principles. 1t has been put to a number
of successful tests. Why, the scientists may ask,
should jurist who has not the training to pass
personal judgment the scientific principles in
vo1ved question the word OF reputable scholars
experienced in the of this delicate bit OF
mechanism,
The reason is that its principle is not self-evi-
dent-as the law OF gravity, for example, is self
evident. There still is opportunity for doctors to
fight the infsbility of the sphygmomanometer
and while this exists laymen must refuse to become
involved.
The sphygmomanometer still is in the same
class with mental telepathy and hypnotsm-so far
as laymen are concerned. Until it is accepted by
than substantial majority of scientists as
infallibe it will have standing before the law.
y convicted of any crime its evidence
would have every right in the world to claim that
his tri<l had been conducted unfairly. Any method
Of penetrating the invisible and intangible must be
considered, for the present at least in the same
classification magic.
Doubtless high scientific principles are involved
in mental telepathy and hypnotsm Doubtless also,
if these methods could be established without room
for reasonable doubt they would prove valuable in
criminal trials. But they have not yet been SO
established. Sometimes they work wonders-but
no can state with absolute certainty that the
successful results not due to happy chance.
The same holds true of the phygmomanometer-so
far judges and juries concerned. To the
lay mind it is artihce of magic, dangerous for
those unnitiated to fool with.
But there is every reason to believe that some
time within the next quarter OF century some
Judge with sufficient prestige to make his decisions
a precedent for the entire American bench will
admit the apparatus evidence. The principles
upon which it works logical-even if there is a
suggestion of blae> art about the mechanism itself.
On the day when it is admitted to conservative
court rooms a new era will have dawned in GRIM
inal procedure-an of certain justice.
There is no reason believe that it eventually will
not become certain the hnger-print system
which long held in suspicion by jurists and the
is admitted everywhere.
Once upon time judges were men learned in
magic. They expected to arrive at their decisions
from the observation Of miracles. Hence accused
persons were ordered to walk area
strewn with red-hot Goals tied hand and
foot and thrown in deep water. If their feet were
burned if they sank to the bottom they were
guilty. Any other reJ4 was accepted as evidence
from unseen forces U the prisoners innocence.
Now legal procedure has switched to the other
extreme. The law does not admit the existence of
anything intangible. The judge may be pious
deacon on the Sabbath with implicit confidence in
the literal truth of every word in the holy Scrip
lures, but when he sits the bench he must be-
come, for all practical purposes, materialist of
materiaists, sceptic of sceptics.
Eventually scientists will bring back the intangi-
bic to legal consideration. Murder mysteries may
be decided by hypnotism, by mental telepathy or
by the sphygmomanometer. But for the present
when laymen and judges alike wander in the dark
ness of the absolutely material it is better that
these methods be reserved for the laboratory, the
vaudeville stage or for detectives who conduct
third degrees.