Any party who has called a witness who has given evidence in any civil proceedings (whether that witness is or is not, in the opinion of the person presiding at such proceedings, adverse to the party calling him) may, after the said party or the person so presiding has asked the witness whether he has or has not previously made a statement with which his evidence in the said proceedings is inconsistent, and after sufficient particulars of the alleged previous statement to designate the occasion when it was made, have been mentioned to the witness, prove that he previously made a statement with which his said evidence is inconsistent.