“A witness heard him speaking on the telephone at eleven fifty-five,” Dr. Hubert pointed out acidly.
“Exactly,” Mason said. “Now you have my point exactly, Doctor. When you fix the earliest time at which the man could have met his death as around twelve o’clock, you’re taking into consideration that the man, according to the testimony of one witness, had been alive at eleven fifty-five, isn’t that right?”
“No.”
“Yet, when I ask you if it isn’t a medical possibility that the man could have been killed at eleven forty-five, you answer me by pointing out that according to the testimony of a witness, he was alive at eleven fifty-five. Now then, Doctor, are you testifying as to your medical knowledge, or as to an opinion formed by taking into unconscious consideration the testimony of witnesses?”
“I’m testifying as to a medical opinion formed from a post-mortem examination of the decedent.”
“Let’s get at it in another way, Doctor. You have mentioned one case in ten in which a combination of variable factors might necessitate moving the time bracket over a wider range. Now, isn’t it possible that there is, perhaps, one case in a thousand, or one case in ten thousand, which would necessitate moving the brackets over a still wider range than would be covered by that one case in ten which you mentioned?”
“Oh, all right,” Dr. Hubert said, “if you want to put it that way, let’s say that he died between eleven-thirty in the morning and three o’clock in the afternoon, and I’ll stake my professional reputation he died within those times, and couldn’t have died as early as eleven twenty-nine. Does that satisfy you?”
“It isn’t a question of satisfying me,” Mason pointed out. “It’s a question of getting at the facts.”
“Well, you’ve got at them now,” Dr. Hubert said.
Scanlon nodded and said, “I think we, all of us, understand the facts. You’re excused, Doctor.”