“That is generally the case, is it?” Mason asked Groton.
“That is a general description, yes.”
“Now then,” Mason said, “when was this test first developed? Just answer the question briefly.”
“If you don’t mind,” Groton said, “and so it will clear the matter in your own mind, Mr. Mason, I would like to tell you something about the precipitin test.”
“Go right ahead.”
“About the turn of the century,” Groton said, “a gentleman named Uhlenhuth, a leading German worker in serology, first showed that if you inject a rabbit with the blood serum of another animal species, say man, you will iso-immunize him, that is, you will produce in his (rabbit) blood a substance that will react (or show up) only with the same animal species with which he has been injected, man’s blood.
“Wassermann was one of the many who confirmed Uhlenhuth’s dictum, and the test began to be used as a method for identifying human blood.
“Professor Nuttall, an American serologist, who was a professor at Cambridge University, England, took up the immense task of making a complete determination of the scope and field of the various tests, and in 1904 published his work in book form.
“Professor Nuttall produced anti-sera from rabbits injected in turn with blood from every known animal the world over, and in no case did he find any exceptions to the dictum that the test was specific, i.e., sera from rabbits injected with elephant blood reacted only with elephant blood, etc.”
Groton glanced at the judge and smiled, and the judge returned his smile as much as to say, “I guess that will put this lawyer in his place.”
Mason said, “That’s very interesting, Mr. Groton. Did you know that several of the German investigators had stated that the blood of the primates sometimes gave reactions weakly simulating human blood reactions?”
“I believe that there is something to that effect in some of these books.”
“And methods have been very much improved since the period of Uhlenhuth and Professor Nuttall?”
“Oh yes.”
“Now then, are you acquainted with Dr. R. B. H. Gradwohl?”
“I have heard of him. I am not acquainted with him.”
“He is the director of the St. Louis Police Laboratory in St. Louis, Missouri?”
“I believe that is right.”
“Are you familiar with his experiments conducted during 1951 and 1952 with the improved technique now available?”
“No, sir. I am not.”
“Are you familiar with a paper which was published first in the Laboratory Digest, Volume 15, February 1952, pages 4, 5 and 6, in which Dr. Gradwohl followed up this early suggestion and made precipitin tests with the blood of apes?”
“Why — now that you mention it, I believe that I did have the matter called to my attention at one time.”
“I submit that if you are going to testify in this matter you had better keep up with the latest scientific advances in it,” Mason said. “You will find that Dr. Gradwohl, with the new improved equipment, made a series of tests with the blood of chimpanzees, and found that he obtained exactly the same reaction in the precipitin test with chimpanzee blood that he got with human blood.
“To complete the chain of evidence he then injected rabbits with chimpanzee blood, producing an anti-chimpanzee testing serum, and found that this gave identical results with both chimpanzee and human blood samples.”
“Well, I didn’t know that!” Groton exclaimed.
“But you do have access to the scientific data by consulting a reference library?”
“I do. Yes, sir.”
“And will you consult that library in case the Court takes an adjournment until tomorrow morning?”
“Oh, now come,” Hamilton Burger exclaimed. “This is going far afield if the Court please.”
“I don’t think it is proper for Counsel to suggest to a witness that Court should adjourn in order to enable him to answer a specific question,” Judge Mundy said. “Either the witness can answer a question or he can’t, and that’s all there is to it.”
“Very well,” Mason said, “I will now put my question directly to the witness. Are you prepared to swear on your oath, Mr. Groton, that the bloodstains which you found on the clothing of the defendant, and which you tested in the so-called precipitin test, were not stains made by the blood of a gorilla?”
The witness hesitated and fidgeted.
“Yes or no?” Mason said. “You’re a professional expert witness. You’re one who has qualified as an expert in dozens of cases. You’re supposed to keep up with what’s going on in the field. You’re supposed to know what’s true and what isn’t true, so go ahead and state now on your oath — absolutely fairly, can you state that the bloodstains were not the bloodstains of a gorilla?”
Groton ran his hand through his hair, glanced uncomfortably at the district attorney.
“Oh,” Hamilton Burger said, “I object, if the Court please. I think this has already been asked and answered. It’s entirely extraneous. Not proper cross-examination.”
“Objection overruled!” Judge Mundy snapped, his eyes on the witness.
Groton glanced again at the district attorney, then at the judge.
“No, I can’t swear to it,” he said.
“And for all you know the bloodstains may have been those made by a gorilla?”
“For all I know.”
“You do know that one of those gorillas that had been liberated had cut his foot on a piece of glass?”
“Yes.”
“And had done some bleeding?”
“I understand so. Yes.”
“Then, as I understand your testimony, you are not now prepared to swear that the bloodstains made on the garment which you inspected were human blood?”
“Well, of course, if they could have been gorilla blood, they wouldn’t have been human blood, that is, they might not have been human blood. And, of course, Mr. Mason, I’m assuming you’re correctly reporting Dr. Gradwohl’s experimental researches. Personally, well, I doubt if — I don’t know.”
“You’re an expert?”
“Yes.”
“You know you must testify on the strength of your own knowledge and research, not on what I tell you or what someone else tells you?”
“Well, yes.”
“All right then, answer the question. Are you prepared to swear absolutely that the bloodstains which you analyzed were the stains of human blood?”
“I’d like to have a little more time in order to answer that question.”
“Time for what purpose?”
“Time so that I can familiarize myself with the experiments of Dr. Gradwohl. You understand, Mr. Mason, that I am not a research scientist. I am a laboratory technician and a toxicologist. I follow the tests other persons have made, tests which have been published in authoritative books on the subject, and when I get certain results I evaluate those results in accordance with experiments and research work that has been made by others.
“If there is something new in this field of serology, and, now that you mention it, it does seem to me that I have heard the matter discussed recently... well, I feel that I owe it to myself and to the Court to make an investigation.”
“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “I don’t think it makes a dime’s worth of difference whether that was human blood or whether it wasn’t.”
“It depends on what value you put on a dime,” Judge Mundy snapped. “The Court is very much interested in this phase of the examination, and the Court wishes to beg Mr. Mason’s pardon for a somewhat natural assumption under the circumstances that this cross-examination was to be used as a means of securing a delay. Quite apparently Counsel has information of the greatest interest to this Court, information which certainly should be clarified. The Court is going to take a recess until ten o’clock tomorrow morning, and the Court is going to ask Mr. Groton to make every effort to ascertain the true facts in regard to these Gradwohl tests. Will you do so, Mr. Groton?”