The maxim 'Res Jpsa Loquitur" signifies nothing more than "the thing speaks for itself". It is a Latin phrase which found expression in the course of argument advanced by Baron Pollock in an old case Byrne v. Boadle,1 in which a barrel of flour rolled out of warehouse window and fell upon a passing pedestrian. Pollock, C. B. observed "A barrel could not roll out of a warehouse without some negligence, and to say that the plaintiff who is injured by it must call witnesses from the warehouse to prove negligence seems to me preposterous. So in building or repairing a house or putting pots on the chimneys, if a person passing along the road is injured by something falling upon him, I think the accident alone would be prima facie evidence of negligence."2 In certain cases mere narration of an accident raises an inference of negligence against the defendant so as to establish a prima facie c ....