Report of the Committee on Scientific Evidence in Courts of Law, consisting of the Rev. W. V. HARCOURT, Professor WILLIAMSON, the Right Hon. J. NAPIER, Mr. W. TITE, Professor CHRISTISON, Mr. CARPMAEL, Dr. TYNDALL, Mr. JAMES HEYWOOD, Mr. J. F. BATEMAN, Mr. THOMAS WEBSTER, Sir BENJAMIN BRODIE, Bart., and Professor W. A. MILLER: Professor WILLIAMSON, Secretary.

In the year 1862 a Committee of this Association recommended that “By a Legislative Act judges should be empowered, on application from a suitor, in causes of a technical character, to convene skilled assessors, the number of whom should not exceed three, and who should give their opinions truly on the statements of the witnesses in such manner as they shall be required by the judge previous to his adjudication of the cause." No legislative action has, however, as yet been taken upon this recommendation.

It is admitted that the character and functions of one class of witnesses have of late years undergone an important development, which has removed them from the position of ordinary witnesses. Yet no provision has as yet been made for this alteration, and the new witnesses are in the eyes of the law still like other witnesses. These new witnesses may be described as active witnesses; for the novelty in their functions consists in the practice of collecting by active exertions facts which are favourable to one conclusion upon the question at issue, and even making experimental researches for the discovery of new facts which may be favourable to that side. An impartial witness goes into court to depose to such facts as he may know pertaining to the question under investigation, and he is bound to state those facts in as accurate and straightforward a manner as possible, and to avoid shaping his statements with a view of promoting one conclusion or verdict more than another. But an active witness, when he undertakes to give evidence upon any question, need not be possessed of any specific information bearing upon the question at issue. He receives statements and information from persons who are interested in one particular conclusion, and he receives no information from the opposite party. But with his mind thus prepared with facts on one side of the question, he frequently sets to work to verify these facts experimentally, or to find new facts bearing upon the question at issue. His opportunities of collecting facts for the trial are one-sided, and his facts are mainly in favour of one particular view of the case the view which he has been employed to support. So well is this partiality of the evidence of scientific witnesses felt and acknowledged, that the more conscientious witnesses, and probably most scientific witnesses, would decline to give evidence at the request of a party whose case they considered unjust. They know that their efforts would tend to increase his chances of success, and they decline to promote a cause which they consider unjust. By thus acting, these conscientious witnesses usurp the functions of judge; for they decide the case in their own minds, and either strive to carry out what they consider a just conclusion, or refuse to aid what they consider an unjust one. If his position in a trial were not of necessity one-sided, and if he did not consider himself bound to support the side upon which he is employed, a scientific or active witness would have no motive for forming an opinion upon the subject at issue before consenting to give evidence. His very selection of what seems the true side is a proof that he is aware of being necessarily partial. With our present procedure, every scientific witness must either allow chance to decide which side he will aid by his exertions, or else he must prejudge in his own mind the question at issue, and then strive to carry

out this verdict by exerting his energies on behalf of the conclusion which he considers true. He is compelled to be a partisan, and tries to avoid being the partisan of falsehood. It is asserted that for the ends of justice such conflicts of evidence as are thus obtained between witnesses engaged by the opposite parties ought to take place; but no reason has been shown why such partial witnesses should be placed in the position of impartial witnesses, or why there should not be scientific witnesses so placed as to have as little bias as possible, and able to depose to facts which they know to be true, leaving to others to weigh these against the opposite facts, and to decide the question at issue upon the result of such comparison.

The present system oscillates between two evils, according as the depositions of scientific witnesses are received by the court. If received as impartial depositions, they endanger the cause of truth; and if considered partial, they are liable to bring censure upon the so-called witnesses who make the depositions. Among the various remedies for these evils which have been suggested, the two following appear to your Committee most promising :

:

One remedy would consist in the appointment by the judge of some scientific witnesses in addition to the witnesses engaged by each party respectively in the suit. These judicial witnesses would hear the evidence adduced on each side, and would be empowered to request the witnesses on each side to show them the experimental or other proofs of their statements, and they would report to the Court all important corrections of statements made by the partial witnesses which they might be able to make, as well as all other facts of which they might be cognizant, bearing upon the question at issue.

The functions of these judicial witnesses would, however, be confined to statements of particulars of evidence. They would have no concern with questions of law, and would accordingly be precluded from summing up the particulars of evidence in favour of any conclusion, unless called upon by the judge to sum up any part of the evidence. The presence of these judicial witnesses could not fail to act as a check upon the statements of partial witnesses.

The other form of remedy would consist in the appointment by the judge of assessors competent to advise him respecting the evidence adduced by the ordinary witnesses.

The Committee is of opinion that the vast extension of natural knowledge which has taken place of late years, and the corresponding development of manufacturing processes, have necessitated the consultation in courts of law of men cognizant of the principles involved in any processes under consideration, and skilled in the art of eliciting information upon them by experiments; but they are of opinion that the action of such persons requires some check of the kind above described.

They trust that the Legislature may soon give to the subject that attention which it so urgently demands.

[The Report on the Standard of Electrical Resistances, with Dr. JOULE'S Paper (referred to in the Transactions of the Sections, p. 12), will appear in the next volume.]

Second Report on Maltese Fossiliferous Caves &c.
By A. LEITH ADAMS, M.A., M.B., F.G.S.

THE Report I had the honour to lay before the Members of this Section at the last Meeting of the Association contained a summary of my researches and discoveries in connexion with the fossiliferous caves, fissures, and alluvial deposits of the Maltese Islands, but had more especially reference to the contents of the Mnaidra Cave, which was then only partially explored. Since that period I have been enabled to clear out the above remarkably productive locality, and continue previous researches in other situations, and bring together a large assemblage of fossil remains, which have been duly forwarded to the Committee appointed to report on the excavations, together with a detailed account of them, as far as I have been able to determine.

Early in December 1865 the explorations in Mnaidra Cave were recommenced, at the point where they terminated (as stated in my last Report); and they were continued with unabated vigour until the entire débris and fossiliferous remains were removed and attentively examined. Then the exact nature of the opening and mode of deposition of its contents became apparent.

(1) Mnaidra Gap.-Mnaidra, like similar gaps and fissures throughout the islands, had at first sight the appearance of a cave; but when attentively examined afterwards, was found to present several roof-openings by which its contents had been conveyed into the interior. It was therefore a simple gap or hollow depression, covered in here and there by fragments of the parent rock and stalactite. Its greatest length was 100 feet, the breadth varying from 15 to 40 feet; its eastern side and rounded extremity were smooth and upright, inclining slightly inwards, whilst the western or opposite side sloped at an angle of about 50°, thus contracting the breadth of the cavity to about 15 feet at the lower limits of the fossiliferous deposits, which lay for the most part along the eastern wall. The lowermost deposits described in my last Report continued much the same to the limits of the gap, and showed no traces of organic remains. The brick-red clay on which the fossiliferous deposit rested, was found to thin out towards the extremity, and slope gradually downwards at a low angle to about the middle of the gap, where it deepened and spread out towards the entrance on the edge of the cliff. Precisely the same colour pervaded the overlying débris in which the animal remains were distributed, the largest accumulation of bones being found at the bottom of the incline—that is, about the middle of the gap, where the second series of explorations were begun in December 1865. Nor was there any material change in the nature of the fossiliferous deposits: the same thin stratum of sandstone pebbles, with teeth and fragments of bones of the quadrupeds and birds, continued on to the furthest extremity of the gap, and overlay the brick-red clay, succeeded by the red and blue clay, intermixed with large blocks of sandstone-the fossil remains being found in the greatest abundance, and in the best state of preservation, wherever the stones and clay predominated. The greatest thickness of the two latter equalled 10 feet, but the average was not above 6 feet. The superficial white calcareous drift on the top attained a depth of 9 feet in certain situations, with angular fragments of sandstone and the parent rock intermixed. This deposit showed all the appearances of its having been derived from the degradation of the two last-named formations, and was probably conveyed into the gap by the same agency that brought the stones and clay, as teeth, tusks, and bones of elephant, and remains of the large dormouse, also land shells, were found here and there throughout, even to within a foot of the surface. Thus the maximum thickness of the fossiliferous deposit equalled 18 feet. It

filled the cavity in the shape of a talus, narrowing at the upper and inner extremity, and spreading outwards towards the entrance. There were, therefore, three distinct kinds of arrangement of the fossiliferous deposits :-1st. When water passed down its floor, bearing along with it small pebbles and fragments and bones of teeth of the proboscidian, rodent, birds, and shells. 2nd. A sudden rush of water containing blocks of sandstone from the slope above, soil, and portions or whole carcasses of the animals just mentioned, and, finally, the scourings of the rock-surfaces and whatever organic remains and débris were lying thereon. The mode of arrangement of the deposits indicated that they had been borne down the west and north sides, from the circumstance that the débris and remains were piled up pell-mell along the concave eastern wall, the most perfect remains being found near the inner extremity of the gap, whilst fragments of bones increased towards the entrance. On the slope above, in the direction just indicated, were discovered several sandstone blocks lying in the pot-holes and waterworn crevices of the lower limestone, as if they had been deposited there at the same time that the masses were carried into the gap. Although many bones, especially those of the feet, showed every appearance of having being introduced in the flesh, there were not a few that testified by their cracked exterior and surface-decay, that they had been bleaching in the open air before they were conveyed into the gap. At all events the organic remains could not have been brought from any great distance, as is exemplified by the perfect state of preservation of the majority of the teeth and bones of the proboscidian. In my last Report I estimated that remains of upwards of fifty individual elephants had been identified up to the termination of the first series of explorations; since then more than 100 elephants' teeth alone have been added to the above, besides many important bones of the skeleton. The remains of the gigantic dormouse, more especially at the upper extremity of the gap, were so numerous that there was scarcely a square inch of the lower stratum that did not contain abundant relics of this rodent.

(2) Gandia Fissure. The phenomena represented by the Mnaidra gap were again repeated inland in an ossiferous fissure in the calcareous sandstone in the district of Gandia, three miles to the east. Here during the summer of 1865 I cleared out a gaping rent, communicating with the surface, and filled to the depth of 8 feet with red earth and masses of the parent rock, among which were discovered teeth of upwards of sixteen individual elephants, of nearly all ages, together with bones of the rodent, and those of water-birds, including species of very large proportions, as evinced by the length and dimensions of the articulating surfaces of the bones-the breadth across the condyles of one femur being 2 inches. It is worthy of note that all the ossiferous cavities and deposits hitherto discovered in the Maltese Islands have been either in the downcast or denuded districts. The latter embrace nearly two-thirds of the island of Malta, viz. the whole of that portion eastward of a line passing about N. and S. through Civita Vecchia. It is computed that a thickness of from 400 to 500 feet of limestone, sand, marl, and sandstone has entirely disappeared from the above locality. In some places the sandstone has been entirely denuded, bringing into view the lower limestone, which, from its hardness, has retained the traces of sea-action on its surface.

(3) St. Leonardo Fissure.-Another example of a similar description to the two last described was afforded by the contents of St. Leonardo Fissure, situated in the calcareous sandstone on the N.E. coast of Malta, and close to the sea, which, however, had washed away the greater portion of the contents before my attention was directed to the locality. Here, under precisely the same conditions as just mentioned, I discovered teeth and fragments of a skeleton of a young elephant. Such accumulations, either with or without organic