The Truth-Compeller

Scopolamin (also known as hyoscin), the poisonous alkaloid anaesthetic derived from henbane, deadly nightshade and similar plants, has added another function to its established use in childbirth (TIME, May 12), if we are to believe Dr. R. E. House, of Ferris, Texas, whose paper on its value in revealing truth in criminal cases created a sensation at the meeting of the American Association of Anaesthetists, held in conjunction with the San Francisco sessions of the American Medical Association.

The effect of the drug is somewhat similar to hypnosis, inhibiting all the special senses of the body except hearing, and paralyzing the judgment and critical faculties. When a patient in this state is plied with questions, Dr. House claims, the auditory centers "set off" the chain of memory, and the replies disclose what actually happened, because the patient is powerless to contrive any deception or rational defense. Dr. House used the drug at San Quentin, the California penitentiary, on three prisoners, convicted of murder, grand larceny and various crimes. The stories told under the influence of scopolamin " proved" the alleged murderer innocent, gave previously concealed evidence of identity in another case and secured a confession of a third. The drug also was used in a Berkeley murder case, justifying previous acquittal. It has been employed for some time at the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, under the direction of Dr. Karl Meyer, principally to secure the names of the deserting men from unmarried mothers. Judge John R. Caverly, of the Chicago Criminal Court, will call a conference to investigate the possibilities of the drug.

Dr. House has himself experimented with scopolamin for seven years, and says he has had no failures. He has been a practicing physician for 25 years. He does not claim that the use of scopolamin is practicable or desirable in courts, but he believes it an invaluable agency in furnishing clues by a humane variety of third degree. He wants to demonstrate its efficiency in federal prisons.

But--he will have to reckon with the embattled psychologists, neurologists and criminologists of the country. The majority of them are skeptical of, not to say hostile to, the idea. The psychologic facts of the case would seem to be that scopolamin does actually have all the inhibitory powers credited to it and releases the " subconscious" or " unconscious " mind of Morton Prince and the Freudians. But there is no guarantee that the content of these mental levels below consciousness is " nothing but the truth." It might express itself in wishes, prejudices, hearsay, an imperfect knowledge of the facts, or fantastic babblings--any unreasoning mental state that happened to be uppermost at the time-- as is somewhat the case in dreams, alcoholic intoxication or with certain other anaesthetics. New York experts, including Dr. George H. Kirby, director of Ward's Island; Dr. Menas K. Gregory, psychiatrist of Bellevue Hospital; Dr. Carleton Simon, police commissioner of narcotic drugs; Dr. Perry Lichtenstein, Tombs physician; Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, editor of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, were almost unanimous in declaring that the results secured could not be relied upon, and pointed out psychological, ethical and physiological objections to the new use of the drug. Dr. Jelliffe, calling it " unmitigated rubbish," said: " In vino veritas is much truer than in scopolamin veritas.'' Warden Lawes, of Sing Sing, is willing to try it out if it is found worth investigating. But, from the legal point of view, confessions induced by scopolamin could not be upheld in court because of the constitutional provision against selfincrimination.