Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Anatomy, Language, Nomenclature

    Reports on Professor Plodder's paper on the 'Anatomical Peculiarities of the Barrister's Tongue' presented at a 'medico-legal society'. Among the professor's findings are the tongue's 'unusual length' (a provision enabling the seizing of 'prey'), and its facility for 'circuitous and roundabout movements, so essential to the practice of pleading'. Proposes a nomenclature for the 'distinct muscles of large size' in barrister's tongues, a nomenclature satirizing barristers' disingenuous and obnoxious practices. These include the 'Suppressor Veri', a muscle enabling the barrister to suppress the truth 'at his convenience', and 'Patheticus Linguae', a muscle 'used in making clap-trap appeals to British juries'.