 A second and quite distinct kind of cause-based proximate cause test is the “direct cause” test. Despite the name, this test does not require that there be a complete absence of any event or state of affairs intervening between a cause and its effect, for that cause to be “direct”. Not even the ancient direct/indirect distinction between the writs of trespass and trespass-on-the-case in torts was this stringent in its requirement of directness (for trespass; Scott v. Shepard). On the contrary, chains can be sufficiently direct for the direct cause test even though they are quite long chains extending over considerable space and time. It is only if a special kind of event—an “intervening” (aka “superseding”, “extraneous”) cause—intervenes that the chain is insufficiently direct. The heart of the direct cause test is thus the idea that there are these chain-breaking, intervening causes.