SHOWED JURY HER ANKLES.

The New York Times
December 20, 1922

Woman is Suing Truck Owner for $75,000 Damages.

Mrs. Lauretta C. Kruse of Hillside, N. J., was permitted by Supreme Court Justice Ford yesterday to exhibit her ankles to a jury to prove that one of them is half an inch larger than the other since she was run down by a truck owned by Edward Davis, Inc., at Eighty-fourth Street and Broadway on Jan. 26, 1919. She is suing for $75,000. The testimony showed that she had alighted from a Broadway surface car with her baby, heavily bundled, in her arms, when the truck passed around the car and struck her. She threw the child and it fell safely, but she was dragged some distance. The testimony also showed that Mrs. Kruse had to remain in Bellevue while four broken ribs healed and her spleen was removed.

Dr. Edwin A. Bowerman, testifying as to the function of the spleen, said that the organ plays a minor part, if indeed any helpful part at all, in the anatomy of a grown person. During childhood, he said, it engages in blood-building. This function, however, ceases, so it is supposed, when a person is 5 or 10 years of age. He admitted, however, that there are many theories concerning the use of the spleen in later years, one that it filters the blood, removing therefrom certain bacteria. There is also a theory, not proved, that it develops red corpuscles in later life, he said.