0160 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

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indicated in every instance,
from 38 to 70 minutes in every single instance, the cabbage
was practically digested, practically altogether so.

Over objections made as is above stated, the Court permitted
this testimony to go to the jury and in doing so committed preju
dicial error. Experts can testify from the given state of any
science, but cannot explain the process or results of particular
experiments made by themselves.

20. Because the Court permitted the witness Harris to tes-
tify as follows:
"I wish to say that I made a microscopic examination of those
contents of the stomachs, and while I found in Mary Phagan's
case, except in the case of particles of cabbage that were chew
ed up too small to give sufficient indication the cabbage
that was in the stomach gives every indication of having been
introduced into it within three quarters of an hour; the
microscopic examination showed plainly that it had not begun to
dissolve, or at least only a very slight degree, and it in-
dicated that the process of digestion had not go on to any extent
at the time this girl was rendered unconscious at any rate.
I wish further to state that on examining Mary Phagan's stomach
I found that the starch had been had undergone practically
no alteration: there were a few of the starch cells which showed
the beginning of the process of digestion, having changed into
the substance called arthro-dextrine, but these were very much
rarer than is the case in a normal stomach where the contents
are exposed to the actions of the digestive fluids for something
like, say 50 or 60 minutes. The contents taken from the little
girl's stomach were examined chemically, and the result of the
chemical examination showed that there were only slight traces
of the first action of the digestive juices on the starch thus
confirming my microscopic examination, and showed clearly that
only the very beginning of digestion had proceeded in this case
as I was of greater experience in this matter
it was found that there were 160 cubical solids, or about five
and a half ounces of total contents remaining in the stomach,
and after an ordinary meal, of cabbage and bread, this is not
the case. Under ordinary conditions, we get out perhaps on