Show EXPERT TESTIMONY REFORM Unreliability ol HIred WHnossos Calls for Change From tho New York Tribune At the conclusion of the Mollneux case the Tribune called attention to the expert testimony abuse so strikingly II luutrated by it and urged the necessity of some reform In procedure which would remove this class of witnesses who are after all mere givers of opinion opin-Ion from temptation to partisanship It la easy for a man without consclous dishonesty to form a desired opinion about a piece of handwriting or about an obscure point of pathology when he knows that he will receive several hundred hun-dred dollars by so doing Most people honestly believe what they want to believe be-lieve A scientific fact is not a tact 1C It runs counter to their prejudices Tho scientist who proclaims it Is an enemy to religion and morality With human nature what It is It Is not remarkable that both sides in a litigation can always al-ways bring respectable experts to backup back-up any desired opinion It Is no more strange than that litigants can always find lawyers to espouse their causes and nine times out of ten believe In them They are hired to do so and with perfectly honorable Intention study the facts from a point of view and in a frame of mind which naturally natur-ally leads to conviction The wonder Is not that experts can always be found to prove anything but that with the license li-cense allowed them much more harm than we see has not resulted |