Attorney: Did you check the body for signs of life?
Pathologist: No.
Attorney: Did you check to see whether the body was breathing or not?
Pathologist: I did not.
Attorney: Did you check the pulse?
Pathologist: I did not.
Attorney: So how could you be sure that the patient was in fact dead?
Pathologist: Because his brain was in a jar on my desk.
Attorney: But he could, possibly, have been alive?
Pathologist: And probably practising law in Massachusetts.

From the transcript of a court case in Bosten Massachusetts
Borrowed from Christmas Crackers by John Julius Norwich