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diff --git a/32033.txt b/32033.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7f9c27 --- /dev/null +++ b/32033.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2127 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vivisection, by Albert Leffingwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Vivisection + +Author: Albert Leffingwell + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32033] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIVISECTION *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + VIVISECTION + + BY + + ALBERT LEFFINGWELL, M. D. + + + NEW YORK: + JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, + 14 AND 16 VESEY STREET. + + + TO + + A Memory of Friendship. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +To the CENTURY COMPANY of New York, in the pages of whose magazine, +then known as "_Scribner's Monthly_," the first of the following +essays originally appeared in July, 1880, the thanks of the writer +are due for permission to re-publish in the present form. For a like +courtesy on the part of the proprietors of LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE, in +which the second paper was first published [Aug., 1884], the writer +desires to make due acknowledgment. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The first of the Essays following appeared in "SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY," +in July, 1880; and immediately became honored by the attention of +the Medical Press throughout the country. The aggressive title of +the paper, justified, in great measure, perhaps, the vigor of the +criticism bestowed. Again and again the point was raised by reviewers +that the problem presented by the title, was not solved or answered +by the article itself. + +At this day, it perhaps may be mentioned that the question--"Does +Vivisection Pay?" was never raised by the writer, who selected as his +title the single word "Vivisection." The more taking headline was +affixed by the editor of the magazine as more apt to arrest attention +and arouse professional pugnacity. That in this latter respect it was +eminently successful, the author had the best reason to remember. With +this explanation--which is made simply to prevent future criticism +on the same point--the old title is retained. If the present reader +continues the inquiry here presented, he will learn wherein the +writer believes in the utility of vivisection, and on the other hand, +in what respects and under what conditions he very seriously questions +whether any gains can possibly compensate the infinitely great cost. + +"What do you hope for or expect as the result of agitation in regard +to vivisection?" recently inquired a friend; "its legal abolition?" + +"Certainly not," was the reply. + +"Would you then expect its restriction during the present century?" + +"Hardly even so soon as that. It will take longer than a dozen years +to awaken recognition of any evil which touches neither the purse nor +personal comfort of an American citizen. All that can be hoped in the +immediate future is education. Action will perhaps follow when its +necessity is recognized generally; but not before." + +For myself, I believe no permanent or effective reform of present +practices is probable until the Medical Profession generally concede +as dangerous and unnecessary that freedom of unlimited experimentation +in pain, which is claimed and practiced to-day. That legislative +reform is otherwise unattainable, one would hesitate to affirm; but it +assuredly would be vastly less effective. You must convince men of the +justice and reasonableness of a law before you can secure a willing +obedience. Yielding to none in loyalty to the science, and enthusiasm +for the Art of Healing, what standpoint may be taken by those of the +Medical Profession who desire to reform evils which confessedly exist? + +I. We need not seek the total abolition of all experiments upon living +animals. I do not forget that just such abolition is energetically +demanded by a large number of earnest men and women, who have lost +all faith in the possibility of restricting an abuse, if it be favored +by scientific enthusiasm. "Let us take," they say, "the upright and +conscientious ground of refusing all compromise with sin and evil, and +maintaining our position unflinchingly, leave the rest to God."[A] +This is almost precisely the ground taken by the Prohibitionists +in national politics; it is the only ground one can occupy, +provided the taking of a glass of wine, or the performance of any +experiment,--painless or otherwise,--is of itself an "evil and a sin." +There are those, however, who believe it possible to oppose and +restrain intemperance by other methods than legislative prohibition. +So with the prohibition of vivisection. Admitting the abuses of the +practice, I cannot yet see that they are so intrinsic and essential +as to make necessary the entire abolition of all physiological +experiments whatsoever. + + [A] Report of American Anti-Vivisection Society, Jan'y 30, + 1888. + +II. We may advocate (and I believe we should advocate)--_the total +abolition, by law, of all mutilating or destructive experiments upon +lower animals, involving pain, when such experiments are made for the +purpose of public or private demonstration of already known and +accepted physiological facts_. + +This is the ground of compromise--unacceptable, as yet, to either +party. Nevertheless it is asking simply for those limitations and +restrictions which have always been conceded as prudent and fair by +the medical profession of Great Britain. Speaking of a certain +experiment upon the spinal nerves, Dr. M. Foster, of Cambridge +University, one of the leading physiological teachers of England, +says: "I have not performed it and have never seen it done," partly +because of horror at the pain necessary. And yet this experiment has +been performed before classes of young men and young women in the +Medical Schools of this country! Absolutely no legal restriction here +exists to the repetition, over and over again, of the most atrocious +tortures of Mantegazza, Bert and Schiff. + + * * * * * + +This is the vivisection which does not "pay,"--even if we dismiss +altogether from our calculation the interests of the animals +sacrificed to the demand for mnemonic aid. For the great and perilous +outcome of such methods will be--finally--an atrophy of the sense of +sympathy for human suffering. It is seen to-day in certain hospitals +in Europe. Can other result be expected to follow the deliberate +infliction of prolonged pain without other object than to see or +demonstrate what will happen therefrom? Will any assistance to memory, +counterweigh the annihilation or benumbing of the instinct of pity? + +Upon this subject of utility of painful experiments in class +demonstrations or private study, I would like to appeal for judgment +to the physician of the future, who then shall review the experience +of the medical student of to-day. In his course of physiological +training, he or she may be invited to see living animals cut and +mutilated in various ways, eviscerated, poisoned, frozen, starved, and +by ingenious devices of science subjected to the exhibition of pain. +On the first occasion such a scene generally induces in the young man +or young woman a significant subjective phenomenon of physiological +interest; an involuntary, creeping, tremulous sense of horror emerges +into consciousness,--and is speedily repressed. "This feeling," he +whispers to himself, "is altogether unworthy the scientific spirit in +which I am now to be educated; it needs to be subdued. The sight of +this inarticulate agony, this prolonged anguish is not presented to me +for amusement. I must steel myself to witness it, to assist in it, for +the sake of the good I shall be helped thereby to accomplish, some +day, for suffering humanity." + +Praiseworthy sentiments, these are, indeed. Are they founded in +reality? No. The student who thus conquers "squeamishness" will not +see one fact thus demonstrated at the cost of pain which was unknown +to science before; not one fact which he might not have been made to +remember without this demonstrative illustration; _not one +fact_--saddest truth of all--that is likely to be of the slightest +practical service to him or to her in the multiplied and various +duties of future professional life. Why, then, are they shown? To help +him to remember his lesson! Admit the value to the student, but what +of the cost? + +In one of the great cities of China, I was shown, leaning against the +high wall of the execution ground, a rude, wooden frame-work or cross, +old, hacked, and smeared with recent blood-stains. It was used, I was +told, in the punishment of extreme offenses; the criminal being bound +thereto, and flayed and cut in every way human ingenuity could devise +for inflicting torture before giving an immediately mortal wound. Only +the week before, such an execution had taken place; the victim being a +woman who had poisoned her husband. A young and enthusiastic physician +whom I met, told me he had secured the privilege of being an eye +witness to the awful tragedy, that he might verify a theory he had +formed on the influence of pain; a theory perhaps like that which led +to Mantegazza's crucifixion of pregnant rabbits with _dolori +atrocissimi_.[A] Science here caught her profit from the punishment of +crime, but the gain would have been the same had her interest alone +been the object. There is _always_ gain, always some aid to +memory;--_but what of the cost?_ + + [A] See Appendix, page 83. + +It cannot be expected that any Medical College, of its own accord and +without outside pressure, will restrict or hamper its freedom of +action. As a condition of prosperity and success it cannot show less +than is exhibited by other medical schools; it must keep abreast of +"advanced thought," and do and demonstrate in every way what its +rivals demonstrate and do. There can be no question but that there is +to-day a strong public demand for continental methods of physiological +instruction. Who make this demand? You, gentlemen, students of +medicine, and they who follow in your pathway. This year it is you +who silently request this aid to your memory of the physiological +statements of your text books; another year, another class of young +men and young women, occupying the same benches, or filling the same +laboratory, repeats the demand for the same series of illustrations. +You, perhaps, will have gone forward to take your places in active +life, to assume the real burdens of the medical profession. To those +succeeding years of thought, reflection and usefulness, let me +appeal, respecting the absolute necessity of all class demonstrations +and laboratory work involving pain. Postpone if you please, the ready +decision which, fresh from your class-room, you are perhaps only too +willing to give me to-day; I do not wish it. But some time in the +future, after years have gone by, remembering all you have seen and +aided in the doing, tell us if you can, exactly wherein you received, +in added potency for helping human suffering and for the treatment of +human ills, the equivalent of that awful expenditure of pain which you +are now demanding, and which by unprotesting acquiescence, you are +_to-day_ helping to inflict. + + BOSTON, MASS., + _March, 1889_. + + + + +[_From_ SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, _July, 1880_.] + +DOES VIVISECTION PAY? + + +The question of vivisection is again pushing itself to the front. A +distinguished American physiologist has lately come forward in defense +of the French experimenter, Magendie, and, parenthetically, of his +methods of investigation in the study of vital phenomena. On the other +hand, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals made an +unsuccessful attempt, in the New York Legislature last winter, to +secure the passage of a law which would entirely abolish the practice +as now in vogue in our medical schools, or cause it to be secretly +carried on, in defiance of legal enactments. In support of this bill +it was claimed that physiologists, for the sake of "demonstrating to +medical students certain physiological phenomena connected with the +functions of life, are constantly and habitually in the practice of +cutting up alive, torturing and tormenting divers of the unoffending +brute creation to illustrate their theories and lectures, but without +any practical or beneficial result either to themselves or to the +students, which practice is demoralizing to both and engenders in the +future medical practitioners a want of humanity and sympathy for +physical pain and suffering." How far these statements are true will +be hereafter discussed; but one assertion is so evidently erroneous +that it may be at once indicated. _No_ experiment, however atrocious, +cruel and, therefore, on the whole, unjustifiable, if performed to +illustrate some scientific point, was ever without "any beneficial +result." The benefit may have been infinitesimal, but every scientific +fact is of some value. To assert the contrary is to weaken one's case +by overstatement. + +Leaving out the brute creation, there are three parties interested +in this discussion. In the first place, there are the professors and +teachers of physiology in the medical colleges. Naturally, these +desire no interference with either their work or their methods. They +claim that were the knowledge acquired by experiments upon living +organisms swept out of existence, in many respects the science of +physiology would be little more than guesswork to-day. The subject of +vivisection, they declare, is one which does not concern the general +public, but belongs exclusively to scientists and especially to +physiologists. That the present century should permit sentimentalists +to interfere with scientific investigations is preposterous. + +Behind these stand the majority of men belonging to the medical +profession. Holding, as they do, the most important and intimate +relations to society, it is manifestly desirable that they should +enjoy the best facilities for the acquirement of knowledge necessary +to their art. To most, the question is merely one of professional +privilege against sentiment, and they cannot hesitate which side to +prefer. In this, as in other professions or trades, the feeling of +_esprit de corps_ is exceedingly strong; and no class of men likes +interference on the part of outsiders. To most physicians it is wholly +a scientific question. It is a matter, they think, with which the +public has no concern; if society can trust to the profession its sick +and dying, they surely can leave to its feeling of humanity a few +worthless brutes. + +The opinion of the general public is therefore, divided and confused. +On the one hand, it is profoundly desirous to make systematic and +needless cruelty impossible; yet, on the other, it cannot but hesitate +to take any step which shall hinder medical education, impede +scientific discovery, or restrict search for new methods of treating +disease. What are the sufferings of an animal, however acute or +prolonged, compared with the gain to humanity which would result from +the knowledge thereby acquired of a single curative agent? Public +opinion hesitates. A leading newspaper, commenting on the introduction +of the Bergh bill, doubtless expressed the sentiment of most people +when it deprecated prevention of experiments "by which original +investigators seek to establish or verify conclusions which may be of +priceless value to the preservation of life and health among human +beings." + +The question nevertheless confronts society,--and in such shape, too, +that society cannot escape, even if it would, the responsibility of a +decision. Either by action or inaction the State must decide whether +the practice of vivisection shall be wholly abolished, as desired by +some; whether it shall be restricted by law within certain limits and +for certain definite objects, as in Great Britain; or whether we are +to continue in this country to follow the example of France and +Germany, in permitting the practice of physiological experimentation +to any extent devised or desired by the experimentalist himself. Any +information tending to indicate which of these courses is best cannot +be inopportune. Having witnessed experiments by some of the most +distinguished European physiologists, such as Claude Bernard (the +successor of Magendie), Milne-Edwards and Brown-Sequard; and, still +better (or worse, as the reader may think), having performed some +experiments in this direction for purposes of investigation and for +the instruction of others, the present writer believes himself +justified in holding and stating a pronounced opinion on this subject, +even if it be to some extent, opposed to the one prevailing in the +profession. Suppose, therefore, we review briefly the arguments to be +adduced both in favor of the practice and against it. + +Two principal arguments may be advanced in its favor. + +I. It is undeniable that to the practice of vivisection we are +indebted for very much of our present knowledge of physiology. This is +the fortress of the advocates of vivisection, and a certain refuge +when other arguments are of no avail. + +II. As a means of teaching physiological facts, vivisection is +unsurpassed. No teacher of science needs to be told the vast +superiority of demonstration over affirmation. Take for instance, the +circulation of the blood. The student who displays but a languid +interest in statements of fact, or even in the best delineations and +charts obtainable, will be thoroughly aroused by seeing the process +actually before his eyes. A week's study upon the book will less +certainly be retained in his memory than a single view of the opened +thorax of a frog or dog. There before him is the throbbing heart; he +sees its relations to adjoining structures, and marks, with a wonder +he never before knew, that mystery of life by which the heart, even +though excised from the body, does not cease for a time its rhythmic +beat. To imagine, then, that teachers of physiology find mere +amusement in these operations is the greatest of ignorant mistakes. +They deem it desirable that certain facts be accurately fixed in +memory, and they know that no system of mnemonics equals for such +purpose the demonstration of the function itself. + +Just here, however, arises a very important question. Admitting the +benefit of the demonstration of scientific facts, _how far may one +justifiably subject an animal to pain for the purpose of illustrating +a point already known_? It is merely a question of cost. For instance, +it is an undisputed statement in physical science that the diamond is +nothing more than a form of crystallized carbon, and, like other forms +of carbon, under certain conditions, may be made to burn. Now most of +us are entirely willing to accept this, as we do the majority of +truths, upon the testimony of scientific men, without making +demonstration a requisite of assent. In a certain private school, +however, it has long been the custom once a year, to burn in oxygen a +small diamond, worth perhaps $30, so as actually to prove to the +pupils the assertion of their text-books. The experiment is a +brilliant one; no one can doubt its entire success. Nevertheless, we +do not furnish diamonds to our public schools for this purpose. +Exactly similar to this is one aspect of vivisection--it is a question +of cost. Granting all the advantages which follow demonstration of +certain physiological facts, the cost is pain--pain sometimes +amounting to prolonged and excruciating torture. Is the gain worth +this? + +Let me mention an instance. Not long ago, in a certain medical college +in the State of New York, I saw what Doctor Sharpey, for thirty years +the professor of physiology in the University Medical College, London, +once characterized by antithesis as "Magendie's _infamous_ +experiment," it having been first performed by that eminent +physiologist. It was designed to prove that the stomach, although +supplied with muscular coats, is during the act of vomiting for the +most part passive; and that expulsion of its contents is due to the +action of the diaphragm and the larger abdominal muscles. The +professor to whom I refer did not propose to have even Magendie's +word accepted as an authority on the subject: the fact should be +demonstrated again. So an incision in the abdomen of a dog was made; +its stomach was cut out; a pig's bladder containing colored water was +inserted in its place, an emetic was injected into the veins,--and +vomiting ensued. Long before the conclusion of the experiment the +animal became conscious, and its cries of suffering were exceedingly +painful to hear. Now, granting that this experiment impressed an +abstract scientific fact upon the memories of all who saw it, +nevertheless it remains significantly true that the fact thus +demonstrated had no conceivable relation to the treatment of disease. +It is not to-day regarded as conclusive of the theory which, after +nearly two hundred repetitions of his experiment, was doubtless +considered by Magendie as established beyond question. Doctor Sharpey, +a strong advocate of vivisection, by the way, condemned it as a +perfectly unjustifiable experiment, since "besides its atrocity, it +was really purposeless." Was this repetition of the experiment which +I have described worth its cost? Was the gain worth the pain? + +Let me instance another and more recent case. Being in Paris a year +ago, I went one morning to the College de France, to hear +Brown-Sequard, the most eminent experimenter in vivisection now +living--one who, Doctor Carpenter tells us, has probably inflicted +more animal suffering than any other man in his time. The lecturer +stated that injury to certain nervous centers near the base of the +brain would produce peculiar and curious phenomena in the animal +operated upon, causing it, for example, to keep turning to one side in +a circular manner, instead of walking in a straightforward direction. +A Guinea-pig was produced--a little creature, about the size of a +half-grown kitten--and the operation was effected, accompanied by a +series of piercing little squeaks. As foretold, the creature thus +injured did immediately perform a "circular" movement. A rabbit was +then operated upon with similar results. Lastly, an unfortunate +poodle was introduced, its muzzle tied with stout whip-cord, wound +round and round so tightly that it must necessarily have caused severe +pain. It was forced to walk back and forth on the long table, during +which it cast looks on every side, as though seeking a possible avenue +of escape. Being fastened in the operating trough, an incision was +made to the bone, flaps turned back, an opening made in the skull, +and enlarged by breaking away some portions with forceps. During +these various processes no attempt whatever was made to cause +unconsciousness by means of anaesthetics, and the half-articulate, +half-smothered cries of the creature in its agony were terrible to +hear, even to one not unaccustomed to vivisections. The experiment was +a "success"; the animal after its mutilation _did_ describe certain +circular movements. But I cannot help questioning in regard to these +demonstrations, _did they pay_? This experiment had not the slightest +relation whatever to the cure of disease. More than this: it teaches +us little or nothing in physiology. The most eminent physiologist in +this country, Doctor Austin Flint, Jr., admits that experiments of +this kind "do not seem to have advanced our positive knowledge of the +functions of the nerve centers," and that similar experiments "have +been very indefinite in their results." On this occasion, therefore, +three animals were subjected to torture to demonstrate an abstract +fact, which probably not a single one of the two dozen spectators +would have hesitated to take for granted on the word of so great a +pathologist as Doctor Brown-Sequard. Was the gain worth the cost? + +This, then, is the great question that must eventually be decided by +the public. Do humanity and science here indicate diverging roads? On +the contrary, I believe it to be an undeniable fact that _the highest +scientific and medical opinion is against the repetition of painful +experiments for class teaching_. In 1875, a Royal Commission was +appointed in Great Britain to investigate the subject of vivisection, +with a view to subsequent legislation. The interests of science were +represented by the appointment of Professor Huxley as a member of this +commission. Its meetings continued over several months, and the report +constitutes a large volume of valuable testimony. The opinions of many +of these witnesses are worthy of special attention, from the eminent +position to the men who hold them. The physician to the Queen, Sir +Thomas Watson, with whose "Lectures on Physic" every medical +practitioner in this country is familiar, says: "I hold that no +teacher or man of science who by his own previous experiments, * * * +has thoroughly satisfied himself of the solution of any physiological +problem, is justified in repeating the experiments, however +mercifully, to appease the natural curiosity of a class of students or +of scientific friends." Sir George Burroughs, President of the Royal +College of Physicians, says: "I do not think that an experiment should +be repeated over and over again in our medical schools to illustrate +what is already established."[A] Sir James Paget, Surgeon +Extraordinary to the Queen, said before the commission that +"experiments for the purpose of repeating anything already ascertained +ought never to be shown to classes." [363.] Sir William Fergusson, F. +R. S., also Surgeon to her Majesty, asserted that "sufferings +incidental to such operations are protracted in a very shocking +manner"; that of such experiments there is "useless repetition," and +that "when once a fact which involves cruelty to animals has been +fairly recognized and accepted, there is no necessity for a continued +repetition." [1019.] Even physiologists--some of them practical +experimenters in vivisection--join in condemning these class +demonstrations. Dr. William Sharpey, before referred to as a teacher +of physiology for over thirty years in University College, says: "Once +such facts fully established, I do not think it justifiable to repeat +experiments causing pain to animals." [405.] Dr. Rolleston, Professor +of Physiology at Oxford, said that "for class demonstrations +limitations should undoubtedly be imposed, and _those limitations +should render illegal painful experiments before classes_." [1291.] +Charles Darwin, the greatest of living naturalists, stated that he had +never either directly or indirectly experimented on animals, and that +he regarded a painful experiment without anaesthetics which might be +made with anaesthetics as deserving "detestation and abhorrence." +[4672.] And finally the report of this commission, to which is +attached the name of Professor Huxley, says: "With respect to medical +schools, we accept the resolution of the British Association in 1871, +that experimentation without the use of anaesthetics is not a fitting +exhibition for teaching purposes." + + [A] "Report of the Royal Commission on the Practice of + Subjecting Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific + Purposes." Question No, 175. Reference to this volume will + hereafter be made in this article by inserting in brackets, + immediately after the authority quoted, the number of the + question in this report from which the extract is made. + +It must be noted that hardly any of these opinions touch the question +of vivisection so far as it is done without the infliction of pain, +nor object to it as a method of original research; they relate simply +to the practice of repeating painful experiments for purposes of +physiological teaching. We cannot dismiss them as "sentimental" or +unimportant. If painful experiments are necessary for the education of +the young physician, how happens it that Watson and Burroughs are +ignorant of the fact? If indispensable to the proper training of the +surgeon, why are they condemned by Fergusson and Paget? If requisite +even to physiology, why denounced by the physiologists of Oxford and +London? If necessary to science, why viewed "with abhorrence" by the +greatest of modern scientists? + +Another objection to vivisection, when practiced as at present without +supervision or control, is the undeniable fact that habitual +familiarity with the infliction of pain upon animals has a decided +tendency to engender a sort of careless indifference regarding +suffering. "Vivisection," says Professor Rolleston of Oxford, "is very +liable to abuse. * * * It is specially liable to tempt a man into +certain carelessness; the passive impressions produced by the sight +of suffering growing weaker, while the habit and pleasure of +experimenting grows stronger by repetition." [1287.] Says Doctor +Elliotson: "I cannot refrain from expressing my horror at the amount +of torture which Doctor Brachet inflicted. _I hardly think knowledge +is worth having at such a purchase._"[A] A very striking example of +this tendency was brought out in the testimony of a witness before the +Royal Commission,--Doctor Klein, a practical physiologist. He admitted +frankly that as an investigator he held as entirely indifferent the +sufferings of animals subjected to his experiments, that, except for +teaching purposes, he never used anaesthetics unless necessary for his +own convenience. Some members of the Commission could hardly realize +the possibility of such a confession. + + [A] "Human Physiology," by John Elliotson, M. D., F. R. S. + (page 448). + +"Do you mean you have no regard at all to the sufferings of the lower +animals?" + +"_No regard at all_," was the strange reply; and, after a little +further questioning, the witness explained: + +"I think that, with regard to an experimenter--a man who conducts +special research and performs an experiment--he has _no time, so to +speak, for thinking what the animal will feel or suffer_!" + +Of Magendie's cruel disposition there seems only too abundant +evidence. Says Doctor Elliotson: "Dr. Magendie, in one of his +barbarous experiments, which I am ashamed to say I witnessed, began by +coolly cutting out a large round piece from the back of a beautiful +little puppy, as he would from an apple dumpling!" "It is not to be +doubted that inhumanity may be found in persons of very high position +as physiologists. _We have seen that it was so in Magendie._" This is +the language of the report on vivisection, to which is attached the +name of Professor Huxley. + +But the fact which, in my own mind, constitutes by far the strongest +objection to unrestrained experiments in pain, is their questionable +utility as regards therapeutics. Probably most readers are aware that +physiology is that science which treats of the various functions of +life, such as digestion, respiration and the circulation of the blood, +while therapeutics is that department of medicine which relates to the +discovery and application of remedies for disease. Now I venture to +assert that, during the last quarter of a century, infliction of +intense torture upon unknown myriads of sentient, living creatures, +_has not resulted in the discovery of a single remedy of acknowledged +and generally accepted value in the cure of disease_. This is not +known to the general public, but it is a fact essential to any just +decision regarding the expediency of unrestrained liberty of +vivisection. It is by no means intended to deny the value to +therapeutics of well-known physiological facts acquired thus in the +past--such, for instance, as the more complete knowledge we possess +regarding the circulation of the blood, or the distinction between +motor and sensory nerves, nor can original investigation be +pronounced absolutely valueless as respects remote possibility of +future gain. What the public has a right to ask of those who would +indefinitely prolong these experiments without State supervision or +control is, "What good have your painful experiments accomplished +during the past thirty years--not in ascertaining facts in physiology +or causes of rare or incurable complaints, but in the discovery of +improved methods for ameliorating human suffering, and for the cure +of disease?" If pain could be estimated in money, no corporation +ever existed which would be satisfied with such waste of capital +in experiments so futile; no mining company would permit a +quarter-century of "prospecting" in such barren regions. The usual +answer to this inquiry is to bring forward facts in physiology thus +acquired in the past, in place of facts in therapeutics. Thus, in a +recent article on Magendie to which reference has been made, we are +furnished with a long list of such additions to our knowledge. It may +be questioned, however, whether the writer is quite scientifically +accurate in asserting that, were our past experience in vivisection +abolished, "it would blot out _all_ that we know to-day in regard to +the circulation of the blood, * * the growth and regeneration of bone, +* * * the origin of many parasitic diseases, * * * the communicability +of certain contagious and infectious diseases, and, to make the list +complete, it would be requisite * * to take _a wide range in addition +through the domains of pathology and therapeutics_." Surely somewhat +about these subjects has been acquired otherwise than by experiments +upon animals? For example, an inquiring critic might wish to know a +few of the "many parasitic diseases" thus discovered; or what +contagious and infectious diseases, whose communicability was +previously unknown, have had this quality demonstrated solely by +experiments on animals? And what, too, prevented that "wide range into +therapeutics" necessary to make complete the list of benefits due to +vivisection? In urging the utility of a practice so fraught with +danger, the utmost precaution against the slightest error of +overstatement becomes an imperative duty. Even so distinguished a +scientist as Sir John Lubbock once rashly asserted in Parliament that, +"without experiments on living animals, we should never have had the +use of ether"! Nearly every American school-boy knows that the +contrary is true--that the use of ether as an anaesthetic--the grandest +discovery of modern times--had no origin in the torture of animals. + +I confess that, until very recently, I shared the common impression +regarding the utility of vivisection in therapeutics. It is a belief +still widely prevalent in the medical profession. Nevertheless, is it +not a mistake? The therapeutical results of nearly half a century of +painful experiments--we seek them in vain. Do we ask surgery? Sir +William Ferguson, surgeon to the Queen, tells us: "In surgery I am not +aware of any of these experiments on the lower animals having led to +the mitigation of pain or to improvement as regards surgical +details." [1049.] Have antidotes to poisons been discovered thereby? +Says Doctor Taylor, lecturer on Toxicology for nearly half a century +in the chief London Medical School (a writer whose work on Poisons is +a recognized authority): "I do not know that we have as yet learned +anything, so far as treatment is concerned, from our experiments with +them (_i.e._ poisons) on animals." [1204.] Doctor Anthony, speaking of +Magendie's experiments, says: "I never gained one single fact by +seeing these cruel experiments in Paris. _I know nothing more from +them than I could have read._" [2450.] Even physiologists admit the +paucity of therapeutic results. Doctor Sharpey says: "I should lay +less stress on the direct application of the results of vivisection to +improvement in the art of healing, than upon the value of these +experiments in the promotion of physiology." [394.] The Oxford +professor of Physiology admitted that Etiology, the science which +treats of the causes of disease, had, by these experiments, been the +gainer, rather than therapeutics. [1302.] "Experiments on animals," +says Doctor Thorowgood, "already extensive and numerous, cannot be +said to have advanced therapeutics much."[A] Sir William Gull, M. D., +was questioned before the commission whether he could enumerate any +therapeutic remedies which have been discovered by vivisection, and he +replied with fervor: "The cases bristle around us everywhere!" Yet, +excepting Hall's experiments on the nervous system, he could enumerate +only various forms of disease, our knowledge of which is due to +Harvey's discovery, two hundred and fifty years ago! The question was +pushed closer, and so brought to the necessity of a definite reply, he +answered: "I do not say at present our therapeutics are much, but +there are lines of experiment which _seem to promise_ great help in +therapeutics." [5529.] The results of two centuries of experiments, so +far as therapeutics are concerned, reduced to a seeming promise! + + [A] "Medical Times and Gazette," October 5, 1872. + +On two points, then, the evidence of the highest scientific +authorities in Great Britain seems conclusive--first, that experiments +upon living animals conduce chiefly to the benefit of the science of +physiology, and little, if at all, at the present day, to the +treatment of disease or the amelioration of human suffering; and, +secondly, that repetition of painful experiments for class-teaching in +medical schools is both unnecessary and unjustifiable. Do these +conclusions affect the practice of vivisection in this country? Is it +true that experiments are habitually performed in some of our medical +schools, often causing extreme pain, to illustrate well-known and +accepted facts--experiments which English physiologists pronounce +"infamous" and "atrocious," which English physicians and surgeons +stigmatize as purposeless cruelty and unjustifiable--which even Huxley +regards as unfitting for teaching purposes, and Darwin denounces as +worthy of detestation and abhorrence? I confess I see no occasion for +any over-delicate reticence in this matter. Science needs no secrecy +either for her methods or results; her function is to reveal, not to +hide, facts. The reply to these questions must be in the affirmative. +In this country our physiologists are rather followers of Magendie and +Bernard, after the methods in vogue at Paris and Leipsic, than +governed by the cautious and sensitive conservatism in this respect +which generally characterizes the physiological teaching of London and +Oxford. In making this statement, no criticism is intended on the +motives of those responsible for ingrafting continental methods upon +our medical schools. If any opprobrium shall be inferred for the past +performance of experiments herein condemned, the present writer asks a +share in it. It is the future that we hope to change. Now, what are +the facts? A recent contributor to the "International Review," +referring to Mr. Bergh, says that "he assails physiological +experiments with the same blind extravagance of denunciation as if +they were still performed without anaesthetics, as in the time of +Magendie." In the interests of scientific accuracy one would wish +more care had been given to the construction of this sentence, for it +implies that experiments are not now performed except with +anaesthetics--a meaning its author never could have intended to convey. +Every medical student in New York knows that experiments involving +pain are repeatedly performed to illustrate teaching. It is no secret; +one need not go beyond the frank admissions of our later text-books on +physiology for abundant proof, not only of this, but of the extent to +which experimentation is now carried in this country. "We have long +been in the habit, in class demonstrations, of removing the optic lobe +on one side from a pigeon," says Professor Flint, of Bellevue Hospital +Medical College, in his excellent work on Physiology.[A] "The +experiment of dividing the sympathetic in the neck, especially in +rabbits, is so easily performed that the phenomena observed by Bernard +and Brown-Sequard have been repeatedly verified. _We have often done +this in class demonstrations._"[B] "The cerebral lobes were removed +from a young pigeon in the usual way, an operation * * _which we +practice yearly as a class demonstration_."[C] Referring to the +removal of the cerebellum, the same authority states: "Our own +experiments, which have been very numerous during the last fifteen +years, are _simply repetitions of those of Flourens, and the results +have been the same without exception."[D] We have frequently removed +both kidneys_ from dogs, and when the operation is carefully performed +the animals live for from three to five days. * * Death always takes +place with symptoms of blood poisoning."[E] In the same work we are +given precise details for making a pancreatic fistula, after the +method of Claude Bernard--"one we have repeatedly employed with +success." "In performing the above experiment it is generally better +_not_ to employ an anaesthetic,"[F] but ether is sometimes used. In the +same work is given a picture of a dog, muzzled and with a biliary +fistula, as it appeared the fourteenth day after the operation, which, +with details of the experiment, is quite suggestive.[G] Bernard was +the first to succeed in following the spinal accessory nerve back to +the jugular foramen, seizing it here with a strong pair of forceps and +drawing it out by the roots. This experiment is practiced in our own +country. "We have found this result (loss of voice) to follow in the +cat after the spinal accessory nerves have been torn out by the +roots," says Professor John C. Dalton, in his Treatise on Human +Physiology.[H] "This operation is difficult," writes Professor Flint, +"but we have several times performed it with entire success;" and his +assistant at Bellevue Medical College has succeeded "in extirpating +these nerves for class demonstrations."[I] In withdrawal of blood from +the hepatic veins of a dog, "avoiding the administration of an +anaesthetic" is one of the steps recommended.[J] The curious experiment +of Bernard, in which artificial diabetes is produced by irritating the +floor of the fourth ventricle of the brain, is carefully described, +and illustrations afforded both of the instrument and the animal +undergoing the operation. The inexperienced experimenter is here +taught to hold the head of the rabbit "firmly in the left hand," and +to bore through its skull "by a few lateral movements of the +instrument." It is not a difficult operation; it is one which the +author has "often repeated." He tell us "_it is not desirable to +administer an anaesthetic_," as it would prevent success; and a little +further we are told that "we should avoid the administration of +anaesthetics in all accurate experiments on the glycogenic +function."[K] It is true the pleasing assurance is given that "this +experiment is almost painless"; but on this point, could the rabbit +speak during the operation, its opinion might not accord with that of +the physiologist. + + [A] A Text-book of Human Physiology, designed for the use of + Practitioners and Students of Medicine, by Austin Flint, Jr., + M. D. D. Appleton & Co. New York: 1876 (page 722). + + [B] Page 738. + + [C] Page 585. + + [D] Page 710. + + [E] Page 403. + + [F] Pages 269-70. + + [G] Page 282. + + [H] Page 489. + + [I] Page 629. + + [J] Page 463. + + [K] Pages 470-71. + +There is one experiment in regard to which the severe characterization +of English scientists is especially applicable, from the pain +necessarily attending it. Numerous investigators have long established +the fact that the great sensory nerve of the head and face is endowed +with an exquisite degree of sensibility. More than half a century ago, +both Magendie and Sir Charles Bell pointed out that merely exposing +and touching this fifth nerve gave signs of most acute pain. "All who +have divided this root in living animals must have recognized, not +only that it is sensitive, but that its sensibility is far more acute +than that of any other nervous trunk in the body."[A] "The fifth +pair," says Professor John C. Dalton, "is the most acutely sensitive +nerve in the whole body. Its irritation by mechanical means _always +causes intense pain_, and even though the animal be nearly unconscious +from the influence of ether, any severe injury to its large root is +almost invariably followed by cries."[B] Testimony on this point is +uniform and abundant. If science speaks anywhere with assurance, it +is in regard to the properties of this nerve. Yet every year the +experiment is repeated before medical classes, simply to demonstrate +accepted facts. "This is an operation," says Professor Flint, +referring to the division of this nerve, "that we have frequently +performed with success." He adds that "it is difficult from the fact +that one is working in the dark, and it requires a certain amount of +dexterity, _to be acquired only by practice_." Minute directions are +therefore laid down for the operative procedure, and illustrations +given both of the instrument to be used, and of the head of a rabbit +with the blade of the instrument in its cranial cavity.[C] Holding the +head of our rabbit firmly in the left hand, we are directed to +penetrate the cranium in a particular manner. "Soon the operator feels +at a certain depth that the bony resistance ceases; he is then on the +fifth pair, and the cries of the animal give evidence that the nerve +is pressed upon." This is one of Magendie's celebrated experiments; +perhaps the reader fancies that in its modern repetitions the animal +suffers nothing, being rendered insensible by anaesthetics? "_It is +much more satisfactory to divide the nerve without etherizing the +animal, as the evidence of pain is an important guide in this delicate +operation._" Anaesthetics, however, are sometimes used, but not so as +wholly to overcome the pain. + + [A] Flint: "Text Book on Human Physiology" (page 641). + + [B] Dalton's "Human Physiology" (page 466). + + [C] Flint (pages 639-40). + +Testimony of individuals, indicating the extent to which vivisection +is at present practiced in this country might be given; but it seems +better to submit proof within the reach of every reader, and the +accuracy of which is beyond cavil. No legal restrictions whatever +exist, preventing the performance of any experiment desired. Indeed, I +think it may safely be asserted that, in the city of New York, in a +single medical school, more pain is inflicted upon living animals as a +means of teaching well-known facts, than is permitted to be done for +the same purpose in all the medical schools of Great Britain and +Ireland. And _cui bono_? "I can truly say," writes a physician who +has seen all these experiments, "that not only have I never seen any +results at all commensurate with the suffering inflicted, but I cannot +recall a single experiment which, in the slightest degree, has +increased my ability to relieve pain, or in any way fitted me to cope +better with disease." + +In respect to this practice, therefore, evidence abounds indicating +the necessity for that State supervision which obtains in Great +Britain. We cannot abolish it any more than we can repress dissection; +to attempt it would be equally unwise. Within certain limitations, +dictated both by a regard for the interest of science and by that +sympathy for everything that lives and suffers which is the highest +attribute of humanity, it seems to me that the practice of vivisection +should be allowed. What are these restrictions? + +The following conclusions are suggested as a basis for future +legislation: + +_I. Any experiment or operation whatever upon a living animal, during +which by recognized anaesthetics it is made completely insensible to +pain, should be permitted._ + +This does not necessarily imply the taking of life. Should a surgeon, +for example, desire to cause a fracture or tie an artery, and then +permit the animal to recover so as to note subsequent effects, there +is no reason why the privilege should be refused. The discomfort +following such an operation would be inconsiderable. This permission +should not extend to experiments purely physiological and having no +definite relation to surgery; nor to mutilation from which recovery is +impossible, and prolonged pain certain as a sequence. + +_II. Any experiment performed thus, under complete anaesthesia, though +involving any degree of mutilation, if concluded by the extinction of +life before consciousness is regained should also be permitted._ + +To object to killing animals for scientific purposes while we continue +to demand their sacrifice for food, is to seek for the appetite a +privilege we refuse the mind. It is equally absurd to object to +vivisection because it dissects, or "cuts up." If no pain be felt, why +is it worse to cut up a dog, than a sheep or an ox? Such experiments +as the foregoing might be permitted to any extent desired in our +medical schools. + +Far more difficult is the question of painful experimentation. +Unfortunately, it so happens that the most attractive original +investigations are largely upon the nervous system, involving the +consciousness of pain as a requisite to success. Toward this class of +experiments the State should act with caution and firmness. It seems +to me that the following restrictions are only just. + +_III. In view of the great cost in suffering, as compared with the +slight profit gained by the student, the repetition, for purposes of +class instruction of any experiment involving pain to a vertebrate +animal should be forbidden by law._ + +_IV. In view of the slight gain to practical medicine resulting from +innumerable past experiments of this kind, a painful experiment upon +a living vertebrate animal should be permitted solely for purposes of +original investigation, and then only under the most rigid +surveillance, and preceded by the strictest precautions._ For every +experiment of this kind the physiologist should be required to obtain +special permission from a State board, specifying on application (1) +the object of the proposed investigation, (2) the nature and method of +the operation, (3) the species of animal to be sacrificed, and (4) the +shortest period during which pain will probably be felt. An officer of +the State should be given an opportunity to be present; and a report +made, both of the length of time occupied, and the knowledge, if any, +gained thereby. If these restrictions are made obligatory by statute, +and their violation made punishable by a heavy fine, such experiments +will be generally performed only when absolutely necessary for +purposes of scientific research. + +In few matters is there greater necessity for careful discrimination +than in everything pertaining to this subject. The attempt has been +made in this paper to indicate how far the State--leaning to mercy's +side--may sanction a practice often so necessary and useful, always so +dangerous in its tendencies. That is a worthy ideal of conduct which +seeks + + "Never to blend our pleasure or our pride + With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels." + +Is not this a sentiment in which even science may fitly share? Are we +justified in neglecting the evidence she offers, purchased in the past +at such immeasurable agonies, and in demanding that year after year +new victims shall be subjected to torture, only to demonstrate what +none of us doubt? That is the chief question. For, if all compromise +be persistently rejected by physiologists, there is danger that some +day, impelled by the advancing growth of humane sentiment, society may +confound in one common condemnation all experiments of this nature, +and make the whole practice impossible, except in secret and as a +crime. + + + + +[_From_ LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE, _August, 1884_.] + +VIVISECTION. + + +Omitting entirely any consideration of the ethics of vivisection, the +only points to which in the present article the attention of the +reader is invited are those in which scientific inquirers may be +supposed to have a common interest. + +I. One danger to which scientific truth seems to be exposed is a +peculiar tendency to underestimate the numberless uncertainties +and contradictions created by experimentation upon living beings. +Judging from the enthusiasm of its advocates, one would think that +by this method of interrogating nature all fallacies can be +detected, all doubts determined. But, on the contrary, the result of +experimentation, in many directions, is to plunge the observer into +the abyss of uncertainty. Take, for example, one of the simplest and +yet most important questions possible,--the degree of sensibility in +the lower animals. Has an infinite number of experiments enabled +physiologists to determine for us the mere question of pain? Suppose +an amateur experimenter in London, desirous of performing some severe +operations upon frogs, to hesitate because of the extreme painfulness +of his methods, what replies would he be likely to obtain from the +highest scientific authorities of England as to the sensibility of +these creatures? We may fairly judge their probable answers to such +inquiries from their evidence already given before a royal +commission.[A] + + [A] The contradictory opinions ascribed to most of the + authorities quoted in this article are taken directly from + the "Report of the Royal Commission on the Practice of + Subjecting Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific + Purposes,"--a Blue-Book Parliamentary Report. + +Dr. Carpenter would doubtless repeat his opinion that "frogs have +extremely little perception of pain;" and in the evidence of that +experienced physiologist George Henry Lewes, he would find the +cheerful assurance, "I do not believe that frogs suffer pain at all." +Our friend applies, let us suppose, to Dr. Klein, of St. Bartholomew's +Hospital, who despises the sentimentality which regards animal +suffering as of the least consequence; and this enthusiastic +vivisector informs him that, in his English experience, the experiment +which caused the greatest pain without anaesthetics was the +cauterization of the cornea of a frog. Somewhat confused at finding +that a most painful experiment can be performed upon an animal that +does not suffer he relates this to Dr. Swaine Taylor, of Guy's +Hospital, who does not think that Klein's experiment would cause +severe suffering; but of another--placing a frog in cold water and +raising the temperature to about 100 deg.--"that," says Doctor Taylor, +"would be a cruel experiment: I cannot see what purpose it can +answer." Before leaving Guy's Hospital, our inquiring friend meets Dr. +Pavy, one of the most celebrated physiologists in England, who tells +him that in this experiment, stigmatized by his colleague as "cruel," +the frog would in reality suffer very little; that if we ourselves +were treated to a bath gradually raised from a medium temperature to +the boiling point, "I think we should not feel any pain;" that were we +plunged at once into boiling water, "even then," says the enthusiastic +and scientific Dr. Pavy, "I do not think pain would be experienced!" +Our friend goes then to Dr. Sibson, of St. Mary's Hospital, who as a +physiologist of many years' standing, sees no objection to freezing, +starving, or baking animals alive; but he declares of boiling a frog, +"That is a horrible idea, and I certainly am not going to defend it." +Perplexed more than ever, he goes to Dr. Lister, of King's College, +and is astonished upon being told "that the mere holding of a frog +in your warm hand is about as painful as any experiment probably +that you would perform." Finally, one of the strongest advocates of +vivisections, Dr. Anthony, pupil of Sir Charles Bell, would exclaim, +if a mere exposition of the lungs of the frog were referred to, +"Fond as I am of physiology, I would not do that for the world!" + +Now, what has our inquirer learned by his appeal to science? Has +he gained any clear and absolute knowledge? Hardly two of the +experimenters named agree upon one simple yet most important +preliminary of research--_the sensibility to pain of a single species +of animals_. + +Let us interrogate scientific opinion a little further on this +question of sensibility. Is there any difference in animals as +regards susceptibility to pain? Dr. Anthony says that we may take +the amount of intelligence in animals as a fair measure of their +sensibility--that the pain one would suffer would be in proportion +to its intelligence. Dr. Rutherford, Edinburgh, never performs an +experiment upon a cat or a spaniel if he can help it, because they are +so exceedingly sensitive; and Dr. Horatio Wood, of Philadelphia, tells +us that the nervous system of a cat is far more sensitive than that of +the rabbit. On the other hand, Dr. Lister, of King's College, is not +aware of any such difference in sensibility in animals, and Dr. +Brunton, of St. Bartholomew's, finds cats such very good animals to +operate with that he on one occasion used ninety in making a single +experiment. + +Sir William Gull thinks "there are but few experiments performed on +living creatures where sensation is not removed," yet Dr. Rutherford +admits "about half" his experiments to have been made upon animals +sensitive to pain. Professor Rolleston, of Oxford University, tells +us "the whole question of anaesthetizing animals has an element of +uncertainty"; and Professor Rutherford declares it "impossible to say" +whether even artificial respiration is painful or not, "unless the +animal can speak." Dr. Brunton, of St. Bartholomew's, says of that +most painful experiment, poisoning by strychnine, that it cannot be +efficiently shown if the animal be under chloroform. Dr. Davy, of +Guy's, on the contrary, always gives chloroform, and finds it no +impediment to successful demonstration, Is opium an anaesthetic? Claude +Bernard declares that sensibility exists even though the animal be +motionless: "_Il sent la douleur, mais il a, pour ainsi dire, perdu +l'idee de la defense._"[A] But Dr. Brunton, of St. Bartholomew's +hospital, London, has no hesitation whatever in contradicting this +statement "emphatically, however high an authority it may be." + +Curare, a poison invented by South American Indians for their arrows, +is much used in physiological laboratories to paralyze the motor +nerves, rendering an animal absolutely incapable of the slightest +disturbing movement. Does it at the same time destroy sensation, or +is the creature conscious of every pang? Claude Bernard, of Paris, +Sharpey, of London, and Flint, of New York[B] all agree that sensation +is _not_ abolished; on the other hand, Rutherford regards curare as a +partial anaesthetic, and Huxley strongly intimates that Bernard in thus +deciding from experiments that it does not affect the cerebral +hemispheres or consciousness, "_jumped at a conclusion_ for which +neither he nor anybody else had any scientific justification." This +is extraordinary language for one experimentalist to use regarding +others! If it is possible that such men as Claude Bernard and +Professor Flint have "jumped at" one utterly unscientific conclusion, +notwithstanding the most painstaking of vivisections, what security +have we that other of our theories in physiology now regarded as +absolutely established may not be one day as severely ridiculed by +succeeding investigators? Is it, after all, true, that the absolute +certainty of our most important deductions must remain forever hidden +"unless the animal can speak"? + + [A] "He feels the pain, but has lost, so to speak, the idea + of self defense." Lecons de Physiologie operatoire, 1879, p. + 115. + + [B] Text-Book of Human Physiology, p. 595. + +II. Between advocating State supervision of painful vivisection, and +proposing with Mr. Bergh the total suppression of all experiments, +painful or otherwise, there is manifestly a very wide distinction. +Unfortunately, the suggestion of any interference whatever invariably +rouses the anger of those most interested--an indignation as +unreasonable, to say the least, as that of the merchant who refuses a +receipt for money just paid to him, on the ground that a request for a +written acknowledgement is a reflection upon his honesty. I cannot see +how otherwise than by State supervision we are to reach abuses which +confessedly exist. Can we trust the sensitiveness and conscience +of every experimenter? Nobody claims this. One of the leading +physiologists in this country, Dr. John C. Dalton, admits "that +vivisection may be, and has been, abused by reckless, unfeeling, or +unskillful persons;" that he himself has witnessed abroad, in a +veterinary institution, operations than which "nothing could be more +shocking." And yet the unspeakable atrocities at Alfort, to which, +apparently, Dr. Dalton alludes, were defended upon the very ground he +occupies to-day in advocating experiments of the modern laboratory and +classroom; for the Academie des Sciences decided that there was "no +occasion to take any notice of complaints; that in the future, as in +the past, vivisectional experiments must be left entirely to the +judgment of scientific men." What seemed "atrocious" to the more +tender-hearted Anglo-Saxon was pronounced entirely justifiable by the +French Academy of Science. + +A curious question suggests itself in connection with this point. +There can be little doubt, I think, that the sentiment of compassion +and of sympathy with suffering is more generally diffused among all +classes of Great Britain than elsewhere in Europe; and one cannot help +wondering what our place might be, were it possible to institute any +reliable comparison of national humanity. Should we be found in all +respects as sensitive as the English people? Would indignation and +protest be as quickly and spontaneously evoked among us by a cruel +act? The question may appear an ungracious one, yet it seems to me +there exists some reason why it should be plainly asked. There is a +certain experiment--one of the most excruciating that can be +performed--which consists in exposing the spinal cord of the dog for +the purpose of demonstrating the functions of the spinal nerves. It is +one, by the way, which Dr. Wilder forgot to enumerate in his summary +of the "four kinds of experiments," since it is not the "cutting +operation" which forms its chief peculiarity or to which special +objection would be made. At present all this preliminary process is +generally performed under anaesthetics: it is an hour or two later, +when the animal has partly recovered from the severe shock of the +operation, that the wound is reopened and the experiment begins. It +was during a class demonstration of this kind by Magendie, before +the introduction of ether, that the circumstance occurred which one +hesitates to think possible in a person retaining a single spark of +humanity or pity. "I recall to mind," says Dr. Latour, who was present +at the time, "a poor dog, the roots of whose vertebral nerves Magendie +desired to lay bare to demonstrate Bell's theory, which he claimed as +his own. The dog, mutilated and bleeding twice escaped from under the +implacable knife, and threw its front paws around Magendie's neck, +licking, as if to soften his murderer and ask for mercy! I confess I +was unable to endure that heartrending spectacle." + +It was probably in reference to this experiment that Sir Charles Bell, +the greatest English physiologist of our century, writing to his +brother in 1822, informs him that he hesitates to go on with his +investigations. "You may think me silly," he adds, "but I cannot +perfectly convince myself that I am authorized in nature or religion +to do these cruelties." Now, what do English physiologists and +vivisectors of the present day think of the repetition of this +experiment solely as a class demonstration? + +They have candidly expressed their opinions before a royal commission. +Dr. David Ferrier, of King's college, noted for his experiments upon +the brain of monkeys, affirms his belief that "students would rebel" +at the sight of a painful experiment. Dr. Rutherford, who certainly +dared do all that may become a physiologist, confesses mournfully, +"_I dare not_ show an experiment upon a dog or rabbit before students, +when the animal is not anaesthetized." Dr. Pavy, of Guy's Hospital, +asserts that a painful experiment introduced before a class "would not +be tolerated for a moment." Sir William Gull, M. D., believes that the +repetition of an operation like this upon the spinal nerves would +excite the reprobation alike of teacher, pupils, and the public at +large. Michael Foster, of Cambridge University, who minutely describes +all the details of the experiment on recurrent sensibility in the +"Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory," nevertheless tells +us, "I have not performed it, and have never seen it done," partly, +as he confesses, "from horror at the pain." And finally Dr. +Burdon-Sanderson, physiologist at University College, London, states +with the utmost emphasis, in regard to the performance of this +demonstration on the spinal cord, "I am perfectly certain that no +physiologist--none of the leading men in Germany, for example--would +exhibit an experiment of that kind." + +Now mark the contrast. This experiment--which we are told passes even +the callousness of Germany to repeat; which every leading champion of +vivisection in Great Britain reprobates for medical teaching; which +some of them shrink even from seeing, themselves, from horror at the +tortures necessarily inflicted; which the most ruthless among them +_dare not_ exhibit to the young men of England,--_this experiment has +been performed publicly again and again in American medical colleges_, +without exciting, so far as we know, even a whisper of protest or the +faintest murmur of remonstrance! The proof is to be found in the +published statements of the experimenter himself. In his "Text-Book +of Physiology," Professor Flint says, "Magendie showed very +satisfactorily that the posterior roots (of the spinal cord) were +exclusively sensory, and this fact has been confirmed by more recent +observations upon the higher classes of animals. We have ourselves +frequently exposed and irritated the roots of the nerves in dogs, _in +public demonstrations_ in experiments on the recurrent sensibility, +... and in another series of observations."[A] + + [A] "A Text-Book of Human Physiology." By Austin Flint, Jr. + M. D. New York, 1876. Page 589; see also page 674. + +This is the experience of a single professional teacher; but it is +improbable that this experiment has been shown only to the students of +a single medical college in the United States; it has doubtless been +repeated again and again in different colleges throughout the country. +If Englishmen are, then, so extremely sensitive as Ferrier, Gull, and +Burdon-Sanderson would have us believe, we must necessarily conclude +that the sentiment of compassion is far greater in Britain than in +America. Have we drifted backward in humanity? Have American students +learned to witness, without protest, tortures at the sight of which +English students would rebel? We are told that there is no need of any +public sensitiveness on this subject. We should trust entirely, as +they do in France,--at Alfort, for example,--"to the judgment of the +investigator." There must be no lifting of the veil to the outside +multitude; for the priests of this unpitying science there must be as +absolute immunity from criticism or inquiry as was ever demanded +before the shrine of Delphi or the altars of Baal. "Let them exercise +their solemn office," demands Dr. Wilder, "not only unrestrained by +law, but upheld by public sentiment." + +For myself, I cannot believe this position is tenable. Nothing seems +to me more certain than the results that must follow if popular +sentiment in this country shall knowingly sustain the public +demonstration of an experiments in pain, which can find no defender +among the physiologists of Great Britain. It has been my fortune to +know something of the large hospitals of Europe; and I confess I do +not know a single one in countries where painful vivisection +flourishes, unchecked by law, wherein the poor and needy sick are +treated with the sympathy, the delicacy, or even the decency, which so +universally characterize the hospitals of England. When Magendie, +operating for cataract, plunged his needle to the bottom of his +patient's eye, that he might note upon a human being the effect +produced by mechanical irritation of the retina, he demonstrated how +greatly the zeal of the enthusiast may impair the responsibility of +the physician and the sympathy of man for man. + +III. The utility of vivisection in advancing therapeutics, despite +much argument, still remains an open question. No one is so foolish as +to deny the possibility of future usefulness to any discovery +whatever; but there is a distinction, very easily slurred over in the +eagerness of debate, between present applicability and remotely +potential service. If the pains inflicted on animals are absolutely +necessary to the protection of human life and the advancement of +practical skill in medicine, should sentiment be permitted to check +investigation? An English prelate, the Bishop of Peterborough, +speaking in Parliament on this subject, once told the House of Lords +that "it was very difficult to decide what was unnecessary pain," and +as an example of the perplexities which arose in his own mind he +mentioned "the case of the wretched man who was convicted of skinning +cats alive, because their skins were more valuable when taken from the +living animal than from the dead one. The extra money," added the +Bishop, "got the man a dinner!"[A] Whether in this particular case the +excuse was well received by the judge, the reverend prelate neglected +to inform us; but it is certain that the plea for painful +experimentation rests substantially on the same basis. Out of the +agonies of sentient brutes we are to pluck the secret of longer living +and the art of surer triumph over intractable disease. + + [A] See Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, June 20, 1876. + +But has this hope been fulfilled? Pasteur, we are told, has claimed +the discovery of a cure for hydrophobia through experiments on +animals. It may be well worth its cost if only true; but we cannot +forget that its practical value is by no means yet demonstrated. Aside +from this, has physiological experimentation during the last quarter +of a century contributed such marked improvements in therapeutic +methods that we find certain and tangible evidence thereof in the +diminishing fatality of any disease? Can one mention a single malady +which thirty years ago resisted every remedial effort, to which the +more enlightened science of to-day can offer hopes of recovery? These +seem to me perfectly legitimate and fair questions, and, fortunately, +in one respect, capable of a scientific reply. I suppose the opinion +of the late Claude Bernard, of Paris, would be generally accepted as +that of the highest scientific authority on the utility of vivisection +in "practical medicine;" but he tells us that it is hardly worth while +to make the inquiry. "Without doubt," he confessed, "_our hands are +empty to-day_, although our mouths are full of legitimate promises for +the future." + +Was Claude Bernard correct in this opinion as to the "empty hands?" +If scientific evidence is worth anything, it points to the appalling +conclusion that, _notwithstanding all the researches of physiology, +the chief forms of chronic disease exhibit to-day in England a greater +fatality than thirty years ago_. In the following table I have +indicated the average annual mortality, per million inhabitants, of +certain diseases, _first_, for the period of five years from 1850 to +1854, and _secondly_, for the period twenty-five years later, from +1875 to 1879. The authority is beyond question; the facts are +collected from the report to Parliament of the Registrar-general +of England: + + _Average Annual Rate of Mortality in England, + from Causes of Death, per One Million Inhabitants._ + + ----------------------------------+---------------+--------------- + | During | During + NAME OF DISEASE. | Five Years, | Five Years, + | 1850-54. | 1875-79. + ----------------------------------+---------------+--------------- + Gout, | 12 | 25 + Aneurism, | 16 | 32 + Diabetes, | 23 | 41 + Insanity, | 29 | 57 + Syphilis, | 37 | 86 + Epilepsy, | 105 | 119 + Bright's disease, | 32 | 182 + Kidney disease, | 94 | 114 + Brain disease, | 192 | 281 + Liver disease, | 215 | 291 + Heart disease, | 651 | 1,335 + Cancer, | 302 | 492 + Paralysis, | 440 | 501 + Apoplexy, | 454 | 552 + Tubercular diseases and diseases | | + of the Respiratory Organs, | 6,424 | 6,886 + ----------------------------------+---------------+--------------- + Mortality from above diseases: | 9,026 | 10,994 + ----------------------------------+---------------+--------------- + +This is certainly a most startling exhibit, when we remember that from +only these few causes about half of _all_ the deaths in England +annually occur, and that from them result the deaths of two-thirds of +the persons, of both sexes, who reach the age of twenty years.[A] What +are the effects here discernible of Bernard's experiments upon +diabetes? of Brown-Sequard's upon epilepsy and paralysis? of Flint's +and Pavy's on diseases of the liver? of Ferrier's researches upon the +functions of the brain? Let us appeal from the heated enthusiasm of +the experimenter to the stern facts of the statistician. Why, so far +from having obtained the least mastery over those malignant forces +which seem forever to elude and baffle our art, they are actually +gaining upon us; every one of these forms of disease is more fatal +to-day in England than thirty years ago; during 1879 over sixty +thousand _more_ deaths resulted from these maladies alone than would +have occurred had the rate of mortality from them been simply that +which prevailed during the benighted period of 1850 to 1854! True, +during later years there has been a diminished mortality in England, +but it is from the lesser prevalence of zymotic diseases, which no one +to-day pretends to cure; while the organic diseases show a constant +tendency to increase. Part of this may be due to more accurate +diagnosis and clearer definition of mortality causes: but this will +not explain a phenomenon which is too evident to be overlooked. + + [A] In 1879 the total mortality in England, above the age of + twenty, from _all causes_ whatsoever, was 287,093. Of these + deaths, the number occasioned by the sixteen causes above + named, was 191,706, or almost exactly two-thirds. + +"It is a fact," says the Registrar-general, in his report for 1879, +"that while mortality in early life has been very notably diminished, +_the mortality of persons in middle or advanced life has been steadily +rising for a long period of years_." It is probable that the same +story would be told by the records of France, Germany, and other +European countries; it is useless, of course, to refer to America, +since in regard to statistical information we still lag behind every +country which pretends to be civilized.[A] Undoubtedly it would be a +false assumption which from these facts should deduce retrogression +in medical art or deny advance and improvement; but they certainly +indicate that the boasted superiority of modern medicine over the +skill of our fathers, due to physiological researches, is not +sustained by the only impartial authority to which science can appeal +for evidence of results. + + [A] Even Japan, a country we are apt to consider as somewhat + benighted, has far better statistical information at hand + than the United States of America. + + * * * * * + +What then is the substance of the whole matter? It seems to me the +following conclusions are justified by the facts presented. + +I. All experiments upon living animals may be divided into two general +classes; 1st those which produce pain,--slight, brief, severe or +atrociously acute and prolonged; and 2nd, those experiments which are +performed under complete anaesthesia from which either death ensues +during unconsciousness, or entire recovery may follow. + +II. The majority of vivisections requisite for purposes of teaching +physiological facts _may_ be so carried on as to take life with less +pain or inconvenience to the animal than is absolutely necessary in +order to furnish meat for our tables. Those who would make it a penal +offense to submit to a class of college students the unconscious and +painless demonstration of functional activity of the heart, for +example, and yet demand for the gratification of appetite the daily +slaughter of oxen and sheep without anaesthetics, and without any +attempt to minimize the agony of terror, fear and pain--may not be +inconsistent. But it is a view the writer cannot share. + +III. Prohibition of all experiments may be fairly demanded by those +who believe that the enthusiastic ardor of the scientific experimenter +or lecturer, will outweigh all considerations of good faith, provided +success or failure of his experiment depend on the consciousness of +pain. In other words, that the experimenter himself, as a rule, +_cannot be trusted to obey the law, should the law restrict_. + +This also is an extreme position. + +IV. Absolute liberty in the matter of painful experiments has produced +admitted abuses by physiologists of Germany, France and Italy. In +America it has led to the repetition before classes of students of +Magendie's extreme cruelties,--demonstrations which have been +condemned by every leading English physiologist. + +V. In view of the dangerous impulses not unfrequently awakened by the +sight of pain intentionally inflicted, experiments of this kind should +be by legal enactment absolutely forbidden before classes of students, +especially in our Public Schools. + +VI. It is not in accord with scientific accuracy to contend for +unlimited freedom of painful experimentation, on the ground of its +vast utility to humanity in the discovery of new methods for the cure +of disease. On the contrary, so far as can be discovered by a careful +study of English mortality statistics, physiological experiments upon +living animals for fifty years back have in no single instance +lessened the fatality of any disease below its average of thirty-five +years ago. + +VII. Vivisection, involving the infliction of pain is, even in its +best possible aspect, a necessary evil, and ought at once to be +restricted within the narrowest limits, and placed under the +supervision of the State. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +I. + +For reasons sufficiently stated in the preceding pages, the writer +does not advocate the total abolition of all experimentation. It is +only fair to acknowledge, however, that very strong and weighty +arguments in favor of legal repression have been advanced both in this +country and abroad, some of which are herewith presented, as the other +side of the question. + +The cause of abolition has no more earnest and eloquent advocate than +Miss Frances Power Cobbe of England. Through innumerable controversies +with scientific men in the public journals, magazines and reviews, she +has presented in awful array, the abuses of unlimited and uncontrolled +experimentation on the continent of Europe, and the arguments in favor +of total repression. The following letters, extracts from her public +correspondence, will indicate her position. + +TENDER VIVISECTION. + +(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SCOTSMAN.") + + 1, Victoria Street, London, S. W., + January 10, 1881. + +SIR.--An Italian pamphlet, _Dell'Azione del Dolore sulla Respirazione_ +(The Action of Pain on Respiration), has just reached my hands, and as +it is, I think, quite unknown in this country, I will beg you to grant +me space for a few extracts from its pages. The pamphlet is by the +eminent physiologist, Mantegazza, and was published by Chiusi, of +Milan. Having explained the object of his investigations to be the +effects of pain on the respiratory organs, the Professor describes (p. +20) the methods he devised for the production of such pain. He found +the best to consist in "planting nails, sharp and numerous, through +the feet of the animal in such a manner as to render the creature +almost motionless, because in every movement it would have felt its +torment more acutely" (_piantando chiodi acuti e numerosi attraverso +le piante dei piedi in modo da rendere immobile o quasi l'animale, +perche ad ogni movimento avrebbe sentito molto piu acuto il suo +tormento_). Further on he mentions that, to produce still more intense +pain (_dolore intenso_) he was obliged to employ lesions, followed by +inflammation. An ingenious machine, constructed by "our" Tecnomasio, +of Milan, enabled him likewise to grip any part of an animal with +pincers with iron teeth, and to crush, or tear, or lift up the victim, +"so as to produce pain in every possible way." A drawing of this +instrument is appended. The first series of his experiments, Signor +Mantegazza informs us, were tried on twelve animals, chiefly rabbits +and guinea pigs, of which several were pregnant. One poor little +creature, "far advanced in pregnancy," was made to endure _dolori +atrocissimi_, so that it was impossible to make any observations in +consequence of its convulsions. + +In the second series of experiments twenty-eight animals were +sacrificed, some of them taken from nursing their young, exposed to +torture for an hour or two, then allowed to rest an hour, and usually +replaced in the machine to be crushed or torn by the Professor for +periods of from two to six hours more. In the table wherein these +experiments are summed up, the terms _molto dolore_ and _crudeli +dolori_ are delicately distinguished, the latter being apparently +reserved for the cases when the victims were, as the Professor +expresses it, _lardellati di chiodi_--("larded with nails"). + +In conclusion, the author informs us (p. 25) that these experiments +were all conducted "_con molto amore e pazienza!_"--with much zeal and +patience. + + I am, etc., + FRANCES POWER COBBE. + +In a controversy with Dr. Pye-Smith, who had read a paper before the +British Association, Miss Cobbe writes as follows to one of the public +journals: + +"Dr. Pye-Smith is reported to have said: 'Happily, the neccessary +experiments were comparatively few.' Few! What are a "few" +experiments? Professor Schiff in ten years experimented on 14,000 +dogs, given over to him by the Municipality of Florence, and returned +their carcases so mangled that the man who had contracted for their +skins found them useless. He also experimented on pigeons, cats, and +rabbits to the number, it is calculated, of 70,000 creatures; and he +now asks for ten dogs a week in Geneva. All over Germany and France +there are laboratories "using" (as the horrible phrase is) numberless +animals, inasmuch as I have just received a letter stating that dogs +are actually becoming scarce in Lyons, and it is proposed to breed +them for the purpose of Vivisection. Be this true or not, I invite any +of your readers to visit the office of the Victoria Street Society, +and examine the volumes of splendid plates of vivisecting instruments, +which will there be shown them, and then judge for themselves whether +it be for a few experiments that those elaborate and costly inventions +have become a regular branch of manufacture. Let them examine the +volume of the English handbook of the physiological laboratory, the +volume of Cyon's magnificent atlas, with its 54 plates, the _Archives +de Physiologie_, with its 191 plates, the _Physiologische Methodik_, +or Claude Bernard's _Lecons sur la Chaleur Animale_, with its pictures +of the stoves wherein he baked dogs and rabbits alive; and after these +sights of disgust and horror they will know how to understand the word +"few" in the vocabulary of a physiologist. I am glad to hear that a +German opponent of Vivisection recently entering a shop devoted to the +sale of these tools of torture, was greeted by the proprietor with a +volley of abuse: 'It is you and your friends,' he said, 'who are +destroying my trade. I used to sell a hundred of Czermak's tables and +other instruments for one I sell now.' + +"Dr. Pye-Smith said: 'Many of the experiments inflicted no pain or +injury whatever, and the great majority of the rest were rendered +painless by the use of those beneficial agents which abolished pain +and had themselves been discovered by experiments upon living +animals.' As to the use of anaesthetics in annulling the agonies of +mutilated animals, the audience ought to have asked Dr. Pye-Smith to +explain whether he intended to refer to chloroform, or the narcotic +morphia, or, lastly, to the drug _curare_. If he referred to +chloroform, Dr. Hoggan tells from his own experience (_Anaesthetics_, +p. 1), that 'nothing can be more uncertain than its influence on +the lower animals; many of them die before they become insensible. +Complete and conscientious anaesthesia is seldom even attempted, +the animal getting at most a slight whiff of chloroform _by way of +satisfying the conscience of the operator_, or enabling him to make +statements of a humane character.' Even if it were conscientiously +administered at the beginning of an experiment, how little would +chloroform diminish the misery of Rutherford's dogs or Brunton's +ninety cats, whose long-drawn agonies extended over many days? How +little could it affect in any way the cases of starving, poisoning, +baking, stewing to death, or burning,--like the twenty-five dogs over +which Professor Wertheim poured turpentine and then set them on fire, +leaving them afterwards slowly to perish? If Dr. Pye-Smith was +thinking of morphia, the reader may refer to Claude Bernard's +_Lecons de Physiologie Operatoire_, where he will find that great +physiologists recommends its use; but at the same time mentions (as of +no particular consequence) that the animal subjected to its influence +still 'suffers pain.' I can hardly suppose, lastly, that Dr. Pye-Smith +was secretly thinking of _curare_, and that he is one of those whom +Tennyson says would + + "Mangle the living dog which loved him and fawned at his knee, + Drenched with the hellish oorali." + +It is bad enough to "mangle" a loving and intelligent creature without +adding to its agonies the paralysis of the powers of motion, and the +increased sensibility to pain occasioned by this horrible drug, which +nevertheless Bernard, in the work above quoted, says is in such common +use among physiologists, that when an experiment is not otherwise +described, it may always be "taken for granted it has been performed +on a curarized dog." + +Finally, Dr. Pye-Smith says, "It was remarkable that the small residue +of experiments in which some amount of pain was necessary were chiefly +those in which the direct and immediate benefit to mankind was more +obvious. He referred to the trying of drugs on animals, to discovering +antidotes to poisons," etc. The bribe here offered to human +selfishness is an ingenious one. "Let us," the physiologists say, +"retain the right to put animals to torture, for it is very +'remarkable' that when we do so it is always in your interest!" +Unluckily for this appeal to the meaner feelings of human nature, +which these modern instructors of our young men are not ashamed to put +forward, it is difficult for them to hit on any one instance wherein +out of their "few" (million) experiments any good to mankind has been, +even apparently, achieved. As Claude Bernard honestly said, at least +as regards any benefit for suffering humanity, "_Nos mains sont +vides_." As to the trying of drugs on animals, Dr. Pritchard, who is, +I believe, the best living authority on the subject, told the Royal +Commission (Minutes, 908), "I do not think that the use of drugs on +animals can be taken as a guide to the doses or to the action of the +same drugs on the human subjects." As to the discovery of antidotes to +poison, the only man who seems on the verge of any success is the +brave and noble fellow who has been trying such experiments not on +animals but on himself. + +In conclusion, I must add one word on Dr. Pye-Smith's last sentence, +namely, "that legislation against vivisection is injurious to the best +interests of the community." Sir, I know not what vivisectors deem to +be the best interests of the community. For my part I do not reckon +them to be the influence of drugs, nor yet susceptible of being carved +out with surgical instruments. I do not think that they consist in +escape from physical pain, nor even in the prolongation for a few +years of our little earthly life. I hold that the best interests of +the community are the moral and immortal interests of every soul in +such community, namely, the conquest of selfishness, cowardice, and +cruelty, and the development of the god-like sense of justice and +love--the growth of the divinest thing in human nature, the faculty of +sympathizing with the joys and sorrows of all God's creatures. +Believing these to be "the best interests of the community," I ask, +without hesitation, for the suppression of this abominable trade, +which can best be described as "Pitilessness practised as a +profession." If vivisection be indeed the true method of studying +physiology, if physiology cannot be advanced except by vivisection, +if chemical observation and microscopic research be useless for the +purpose, and nothing but the torture of animals and the demoralization +of men will suffice for its progress--then, in God's name, I say, let +physiology stop at the point it has reached, even till the day of +doom.--I am, Sir, with apologies for the length of this letter, yours, +etc. + + FRANCES POWER COBBE + + * * * * * + +Certainly, as regards the ethics of vivisection, nothing more eloquent +has ever been written than this closing paragraph. + +In a letter to the London TIMES in December, 1884, Miss Cobbe writes +as follows: + +TO THE EDITOR. + +SIR,--In your article on this subject on Saturday last you called upon +the opponents of vivisection to answer certain questions. As I have +been intrusted for many years with the hon. secretaryship of the +leading anti-vivisectionist society, I beg to offer you the following +replies to those questions:-- + +You ask first, Do we "deny that vivisection is capable of yielding +knowledge of service to man?" We are not so rash as to deny that any +practice, even the most immoral conceivable, might possibly yield +knowledge of service to man; and, in particular, we do not deny that +the vivisection of human beings by the surgeons of classic times, and +again by the great anatomists of Italy in the 15th century, may very +possibly have yielded knowledge to man, and be capable, if revived, of +yielding still more. We have, however, for a long time back called on +the advocates of the vivisection of dogs, monkeys, &c., to furnish +evidence of the beneficial results of their work, not as setting at +rest the question of its morality, but as an indispensable preliminary +to justify them in coming into the court of public opinion as +defendants of a practice obviously (as the Royal Commissioners +reported) "liable from its very nature to great abuse." + +We must be excused if we now hold it to be demonstrated that, whether +vivisection be or be not "capable of yielding useful knowledge," it +certainly yields only a scanty crop of it. Were there anything like an +abundant harvest, such a sample as this would not have been produced +with so much pomp for public scrutiny. In short, we think with Dr. +Leffingwell that, "if pain could be measured by money, there is no +mining company in the world which would sanction prospecting in such +barren regions." + +You ask us, Sir, secondly, "Do we affirm that the benefit of mankind +is not an adequate or sufficient justification for the infliction of +pain on animals?" We have two answers to this question. + +Assuming that by vivisection benefits might be obtained for human +bodies, we hold that the evil results of the practice on human minds +would more than counterbalance any such benefits. The cowardice and +pitilessness involved in tying down a dog on a table and slowly +mangling its brain, its eyes, its entrails; the sin committed against +love and fidelity themselves when a creature capable of dying of grief +on his master's grave is dealt with as a mere parcel of material +tissues, "valuable for purposes of research"--these are basenesses for +which no physical advantages would compensate, and the prevalence of +such a heart-hardening process among our young men would, we are +convinced, detract more from the moral interests of our nation than a +thousand cases of recovery from disease would serve those of a lower +kind. Even life itself ought not to be saved by such methods, any more +than by the cannibalism of the men of the "Mignonette." + +Our second answer is yet more brief. We do not "deny that the benefit +of man is a sufficient justification for inflicting pain upon +animals," provided that pain is kept within moderate bounds, nor yet +to taking life from them in a quick and careful manner. But we do deny +the right of man to inflict torture upon brutes, and thus convert +their lives from a blessing into a curse. Such torture has been +inflicted upon tens of thousands of animals by vivisection; and no +legislation that ingenuity can devise will, we believe, suffice to +guard against the repetition of it so long as it is sanctioned in any +way as a method of research. The use of vivisection--if it have any +use--is practically inseparable from abuse. We therefore call upon our +countrymen to forego the poor bribes of possible use which are offered +to them, and of which we have now seen a "unique and impressive" +example, and generously and manfully to say of vivisection as they +once said of slavery "We will have none of it." + + I am, Sir, yours, etc., + FRANCES POWER COBBE. + + Hengwrt, Dolgelly, Dec. 28, 1884. + + +II. + +[_Report of American Anti-vivisection Society, Jan. 1888._] + +"There remain two grounds to adopt: one the total abolition of all +experiments; the other the total abolition of all _painful_ +experiments. This latter position, which is the one that Dr. Bigelow +of Boston and Dr. Leffingwell have assumed, has engaged our attention +for a long time; but, after bestowing upon it careful consideration, +we feel that we must give it up as impracticable. To secure immunity +from pain there must be absolutely perfect anaesthesia. This can be +only obtained in two ways: one is by trusting to the experimenter +himself to give sufficient of the anaesthetic; the other to insist that +an assistant shall be present for the express purpose of keeping the +animal under perfect anaesthesia. Now is it anyway likely that either +of these conditions would be observed?" + + +III. + +[_From the "Therapeutic Gazette," Detroit, Aug., 1880._] + +"Vivisection is grossly abused in the United States. * * We would add +our condemnation of the ruthless barbarity which is every winter +perpetrated in the Medical Schools of this country. History records +some frightful atrocities perpetrated in the name of Religion; but it +has remained for the enlightenment and humaneness of this century to +stultify themselves by tolerating the abuses of the average +physiological laboratory--all conducted in the name of Science. There +is only one way to progress in Therapeutics; and that is by clinical +observation; the noting of the action of individual drugs under +particular diseased conditions. He who has the largest practice and is +the keenest observer, and the most systematic recorder of what he +sees, does the most to advance Medicine." + + +IV. + +[_From editorial in "The Spectator," London, July 17, 1880._] + +"A memorial for the absolute abolition of vivisection has been +presented to Mr. Gladstone with a great many most influential +signatures attached. For our own part, were the experiments on the +inoculation of animal diseases excepted,--experiments which, we +venture to say, have sometimes proved of the greatest value to animals +themselves,--we should, on the whole, be content to go with the +abolitionists, not because we think all experiments, especially when +conducted under strict anaesthetics, wrong, but because when they are +permitted at all it is so extremely difficult to enforce properly and +fully humane conditions. Dr. A. Leffingwell has sufficiently shown in +the able paper in the July _Scribner's Magazine_, how extremely few +remedies of value have resulted from this awfully costly expenditure +of anguish. 'If pain could be estimated in money' he justly says, +'no corporation would be satisfied with such a waste of capital.' +Take, as the single illustration of this most weighty sentence, +Dr. Leffingwell's statement that what the late Dr. Sharpey called +'Magendie's infamous experiment' on the stomach of the dog, has +been repeated 200 times without establishing to the satisfaction of +scientific physiologists the theory for which that act of wickedness +was first committed. No wonder the society for the Protection of +Animals from Vivisection goes to extremes." + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. + +2. Footnotes have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the +closest paragraph break. + +3. Some obvious punctuation errors in the text have been silently +corrected, for example, missing period at a paragraph end, etc. + +4. The following misprints have been corrected: + "sufering" corrected to "suffering" (page 14) + "anaethetics" corrected to "anaesthetics" (page 48) + +5. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies +in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Vivisection, by Albert Leffingwell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIVISECTION *** + +***** This file should be named 32033.txt or 32033.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/3/32033/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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