03.
134
Dr. Val entine saw him on admission and at once said he had
been drinking.
We have just a little point on that
earlier
when the ambulance boy said that all the accused
said so far as he could understand was "Im Tsow". I want wine,
than that
-
and we know that he repeated that request on more than one
occasion.
Dr. Valentine says "he was only slightly under the
influence of alcohol when I saw him a few minutes after 4 o'clock.
At 3 o'clock he would be a little more under the influence of
alcohol but in my opinion he could never have been greatly under
the influence of alcohol." It may be that a person either of the
class of society of the accused or of the abstemious habits which
the accused has claimed for himself, would be more likely to succumb 1
to a certain quantity of alcohol than certain other people might.
It is a matter for you to consider. We have no facts as to the
quantity. It is very difficult to know how to draw any conclusion
as to the quantity accused had had. We know somewhere about 10
o'clock he went out not having had nay thing to drink, that he may
have had somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2 in his pocket at that time. At 4 o'clock he had no money in his pocket and his breath
smelt of alcohol. It is a difficult point because while I am
sure you will accept the suggestion from the Learned Counsel for the accused that the accused whose normal living was frugal,
a man whose normal expenditure did not include, could not include
any considerable indulgence in intoxicants of any kind, a man who,
as accused has said of himself, has been an abstainer, might more
readily yield, but Dr. Valentine said where an abstainer or a
moderate drinker takes' alcohol that alcohol does not go through
that process which Providence has provided for those who take a little
more, but goes straight into the blood, into the urine - therefore
he would expect in a blood test of an abstainer, to find a
greater proportion of alcohol. When Dr. Val entine spoke of blood
tests of alcohol you will recollect that Mr. Branson said, and
Dr. Velentine agreed, that the ratio between the result of the
blood test and a urine test was constant and bore the ratio of