whies and wherefores

— How such one sided superficial testimony can have so much influence with an intelligent court is beyond the common comprehension. A case in point, decided a few years ago, was in which a professional expert, “a civil and mechanical engineer” professed to be “posted” in “the whies and wherefores” of all things, especially, just then, of turbine wheels and the intricacies of their construction, having “studied considerably on the action of” the same, “and how the water acts upon them, having read various books on the subject, commencing with the first turbine nearly thirty years ago.”