nihil ad rem

But do you not see that unless you start with this for your major premiss,—“Theta cannot exist on one side of a page if epsilon stands immediately behind it on the other side,”—your experiment is nihil ad rem, and proves absolutely nothing?

"Nihil ad rem!" cried Mr. Skinner; "it's this man I want to ask."

Nihil ad rem, indeed!" hiccoughed Zatonyi, "are not we in court-martial assembled?

This criticism is either incorrect or nihil ad rem.

The question, "Would a novelist in altered circumstances have given us more or better novels?" is sometimes treated as ultra vires or nihil ad rem on the critic's part.