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diff --git a/37158.txt b/37158.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..adfb3f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/37158.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3786 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Pros and Cons of Vivisection, by Charles Richet + +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: The Pros and Cons of Vivisection + +Author: Charles Richet + +Commentator: W. D. Halliburton + +Release Date: August 22, 2011 [EBook #37158] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROS AND CONS OF 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.) + + + + + + + +THE PROS AND CONS OF VIVISECTION + + +_All rights reserved_ + +[Illustration: "LA MORT." + +_By Bartholome in Pere Lachaise, Paris._ + +_Frontispiece._] + + + + +THE PROS AND CONS OF VIVISECTION + +BY + +DR CHARLES RICHET + +PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE + +PARIS + + +WITH A PREFACE BY + +W. D. HALLIBURTON, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. + +PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON + +LONDON + +DUCKWORTH & CO. + +3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN + +1908 + + + + +PREFACE + + +To scientific readers, Professor Charles Richet needs no introduction, but +to the public at large it may be necessary to mention that he is one of the +best known of French physiologists. He has occupied for a good many years +the Chair of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and he has +contributed greatly to the progress of the science to which he has devoted +his life; some of his discoveries are alluded to with all modesty in the +pages which follow. He is, moreover, a man of great erudition, and has been +wisely selected to be the editor of a monumental work, _Le dictionnaire de +physiologie_, which is issuing from the press to-day. + +Professor Richet has given particular attention to the study of the +psychological side of physiology, and his views on pain will be read as +coming from one who is specially fitted to deal with this and other mental +phenomena. + +I therefore consider it a great honour that Professor Richet should have +asked me to write a preface to his most interesting and convincing book on +the Pros and Cons of Vivisection, and it is a great pleasure to me to +commend its thoughtful perusal to all who are interested in the subject. + +Professor Richet is not only one who speaks with authority, but he is one +of the gentlest and kindliest of men. The science which he teaches is the +science of life. To understand the meaning of vital processes it is +necessary to study the living organism, and to obtain this knowledge it is +sometimes necessary to perform experiments on living animals. When he +defends a practice which many regard as cruel, detestable, and immoral, +mainly because of the unscrupulous misrepresentations put forward by the +professional Anti-vivisectionists, he does so because he is convinced that +none of the epithets just mentioned correctly describe the experiments +which are carried out in physiological laboratories at the present time. +These experiments are undertaken only by properly qualified persons having +a due sense of their responsibilities. Every regard is paid to the comfort +of the animals employed; and the ultimate aim of this work is the progress +of knowledge, and the consequent relief to suffering which is so often only +the result of ignorance. The benefits which accrue are felt not only by +human beings, but also (as in veterinary practice) by the animals +themselves. No attempt is made here to defend experiments which have not +these objects in view, or which (as has happened in the past) pay no +consideration to the pain an animal experiences. + +I feel quite sure that if the British public were convinced that the +experiments in our laboratories were all conducted in accordance with our +present law, the Anti-vivisection crusade would flicker out. It is the +object of those who are active propagandists on the other side to keep +their agitation going, by omitting to mention the painlessness of the +operations performed, or by suggesting (either directly or by innuendo) +that anaesthesia is a sham. My own experience, which is a wide one, has been +that physiologists not only obey the law literally, but are most +punctilious in its due observance. A certain number of trivial +irregularities have been reported to the Home Office by the inspectors +appointed under the Vivisection Act, but there has been no case of omitting +the use of anaesthetics. The majority of these offences have been for using +anaesthetics unnecessarily. A certificate in certain cases is granted for +the omission of an anaesthetic: this is given when the operation is a +trifling one, and has never been granted for any operation more serious +than the prick of a hypodermic needle. Nevertheless, the operator has +sometimes employed an anaesthetic even for this, and has in consequence been +reported to the Home Office for infringing the terms of his certificate. + +Pawloff has truly said that the ideal experiment is one performed without +anaesthesia and without pain. In many cases this ideal can be realised, but +in other cases it is unattainable. Physiologists have, therefore, had to +select which of the two disturbing factors shall be absent, and they have +unhesitatingly chosen the latter. Pain must be absent (1) on grounds of +humanity, (2) because it is a far greater disturber of the normal functions +than anaesthesia is, and (3) because the struggles of an animal in pain will +nullify the accuracy of the experiment, and endanger the safety of the +delicate apparatus which it may be necessary to employ. + +Exactly the same arguments apply to the employment of the antiseptic or +aseptic methods of surgery, in experiments in which the animal is kept +alive after an operation to study its effects. The healing process is then +painless, and there is absence of those febrile and inflammatory conditions +which would otherwise complicate the issue. + +It is therefore for two reasons that an experimenter uses both anaesthetics +and antiseptics, (1) to save the animal suffering, and (2) to ensure the +success of the experiment. + +The barbarities which are recorded by Anti-vivisectionist agitators do not +exist; the repetition of their stories in spite of repeated contradictions +is partly due to wilful misrepresentation and exaggeration, and partly the +result of ignorance of the meaning of the technical terms employed by +physiological writers. + +At the Royal Commission which is now considering the question of +Vivisection, the cases of alleged cruelty have been one by one sifted to +the bottom, and in no single case has a charge of cruelty been sustained. +Any one who cares to wade through the four bluebooks of evidence which have +been printed will discover for himself that this is so. In fact, one +prominent Anti-vivisection journal (the _Verulam Review_, April-June 1907, +p. 186), in reference to the evidence given by one of the witnesses before +the Commission, had to confess, "Almost every one of Mrs Cook's horrifying +cases seems, when examined, to melt away." + +An Anti-vivisectionist publication which has obtained some notoriety ("The +Shambles of Science") figured in a recent lawsuit. When the particular +charge which was the subject of the action was investigated by a prolonged +inquiry before the Lord Chief-Justice, a British jury showed their sense of +the enormity of the slander by awarding the physiologist impugned the very +substantial damages of L2000. An undertaking was subsequently given by the +publisher of this "hysterical work" (to quote the words of the Lord +Chief-Justice) that it should be withdrawn from publication. Yet the book +has been since re-issued by the authors, with the chapter that formed the +subject of the trial omitted, but otherwise with very little alteration. +The libellous statements scattered through its other chapters can still be +read by the lovers of sensation, and the authors doubtless hope that their +readers will never take the trouble to read also the evidence before the +Royal Commission in which all the allegations of cruelty have been shown to +be groundless. + +The subject of curare, another bugbear of the Anti-vivisection lecturer, is +so adequately dealt with by Professor Richet that I will spare the reader +any further discussion on that question here. I have taken the liberty of +adding, in a footnote on p. 36, a statement in respect to the usages of +English physiologists in relation to that drug. + +The experiments of the pharmacologist in the investigation of the action of +drugs can be and are carried out under anaesthesia in the same way as those +of the physiologist. But the experiments of the pathologist, which consist +in conveying germs and other disease products to animals, come under a +different heading. One does not deny that if the animal takes the disease, +suffering is produced. This is fully admitted by Professor Richet, and I +think that any common-sense reader will be convinced by the arguments put +forward that the practice is fully justifiable. It is difficult, as +Professor Richet points out, to gauge the amount of pain an animal such as +a rat, guinea-pig, or rabbit (the animals usually employed for the purpose) +really feels when given a disease experimentally, and whether this is +greater or less than the suffering it will endure when another disease or a +violent death carries it off in the usual course of nature. It is, however, +undeniable that the suffering of these animals is much less than those of +human beings. A man, when he is ill, suffers a certain amount of discomfort +and physical bodily pain; but this is a drop in the ocean compared to the +mental worry and anxiety he endures--all that, at any rate, is absent from +the suffering rabbit. The pathologist sees beyond the pain which he +inflicts to the pain which he prevents. The death of a few lower animals +may be, and has in the past been the means of preventing pain and disease +both to the animals themselves and to human beings also, who may be counted +by thousands or even millions. + +If there is one piece of evidence more than another which was given before +the Royal Commission that deserves rescue from the oblivion of a bluebook, +it is that given by Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton. His is one of the +keenest legal intellects of modern times, and he at any rate cannot be +accused of having any axe of his own to grind. I regret that exigencies of +space prevent me from making more than one or two references to it. + +He begins by taking the case of a ship infected with plague, and infested +also with rats, the carriers of plague. The ship enters port. Would it be +preferable to kill the rats, and so prevent them and the disease from +entering the port and causing untold disaster there, or staying one's hand +because the slaughter of the rats would be a painful proceeding? The +captain who gives orders for the destruction of the rats inflicts pain and +death on them in order to prevent greater pain and more widespread death +elsewhere. The captain who says, "Spare the rats," is guilty of the +criminal act of causing the death of many innocent human beings. So it is +with the Anti-vivisectionists: they see only the pain inflicted, and do not +heed the pain prevented. On this score they are in a sense logical when +they call Lord Lister a brute, although he of all men living at the present +time has been the means of preventing the greatest amount of suffering. +They see only the pain which he deliberately inflicted on a few rats and +rabbits; they cannot see, or refuse to see the measureless amount of misery +he has prevented. + +In another place the Lord Justice points out that the pain inflicted in all +the laboratories of the country put together during a year is infinitesimal +compared to that which is inflicted every day in the slaughter of animals +for food; to that which ignorant farm labourers inflict without +anaesthetics, in spaying animals by thousands in order that beef and mutton +may be tenderer or have a more pleasant flavour to the consumer; to that +inflicted by sportsmen when their victims, imperfectly shot, die a +lingering death; to that which women thoughtlessly allow in order that they +may have ospreys in their hats and furs upon their backs. + +So far as the satisfaction of appetite, the pandering to the so-called +sportsman's instincts, or the gratification of vanity are concerned, these +things may go on. The average Anti-vivisectionist disregards them, or at +least makes no effort to prevent them. The only kind of pain which stirs +his feelings, and meets with his opprobrium, and enables him to indulge in +his favourite epithets, is _the one justifiable bit of pain in the whole +world_--a pain inflicted with the noblest of all objects, and by the most +humane of all men (for so the medical profession admittedly is), the +object, namely, of preventing future pain, which otherwise would encompass +the world of life. + +Professor Richet has wisely not made his book too long. He has been content +to select a few typical and striking examples of the benefits which +experimentation on animals has conferred upon humanity, instead of +attempting even to enumerate them all. He might for instance have dwelt +upon the extinction of rinderpest in South Africa: here, at the expense of +a few experimental animals, Koch has prevented a scourge which formerly +exterminated hundreds of thousands of cattle annually, and might still be +exercising this fell influence on to all eternity if the opponents of +scientific knowledge had their way. He might have taken the case of snake +bite, and the discovery made by his great fellow-countryman Calmette of the +means of combating this deadly poison, which has hitherto killed our Indian +fellow-subjects by its tens of thousands a year. + +On coming to one of the most recent of beneficent discoveries, he might +have dwelt upon the case of Mediterranean fever, and the way which it has +been practically stamped out at Malta and Gibraltar, because the method of +its spread has been discovered and the disease prevented at the expense of +a few goats and other animals. + +But those who are wilfully deaf to such arguments will not, I fear, be +convinced, even if examples are multiplied indefinitely. In spite of the +love for animals which our opponents profess, the life of cattle, +particularly if they are so far away as South Africa, does not appeal to +them. The happiness of the teeming millions of India does not come home to +them. Even the comfort of our brave soldiers and sailors in the +Mediterranean stations is of little account: they have never visited the +hospitals at Malta or Gibraltar, and seen, as they could have seen a year +or two ago, the poor fellows dying off like flies from a mysterious disease +that nothing could be done for, because the manner in which the fatal germ +entered their bodies was unknown. Now, by the simple prohibition of the use +of goat's milk, a prohibition due to animal experimentation and to that +alone, the disease has been exterminated. + +Anti-vivisectionists do not come in contact with disease all day and every +day as medical men do; they therefore do not realise how widespread it is, +and what terrible forms it may take. Their notions are vague; they talk +about suffering without any intimate knowledge of the question. They bestow +their sympathies upon the few victims of the vivisector's knife or syringe; +they have none left for the larger number of victims which would have +suffered if the few had not been sacrificed. Can it be wondered at that +medical men, whose experience is so different to theirs, feel otherwise? +The doctor's life is not one in which these are just a few painful partings +with dear ones, but he is steeped in such experiences from morning till +night. His sympathies aim at the relief and cure of all this evil; and the +death of a few guinea-pigs or rabbits is a necessary incident which he has +the courage to permit because of the greater good that is the ultimate +result. + +There are, however, some of the examples which ought to stir better +feelings even in the Anti-vivisectionist camp, namely, cases of diseases +which are common or used to be common in our very midst, and which we need +not go to India or Malta to look for. One of these is diphtheria, and the +statements and statistics in relation to the almost miraculous change which +has come over our ideas on this affection are incontrovertible, and are +fully set forth in the following pages. The disease no longer inspires the +terror it used to do, for it is one which can be cured, and easily cured, +by the method of serum therapy. It has not, it is true, been stamped out, +for up till the present success has not attended efforts of prevention. +Prevention is better than cure, but cure is better than suffering and +death. Just now, medical science can cure the disease, and if medical +progress continues at its present rapid rate of growth, who can doubt that +in the near future this disease, like typhus and typhoid, will be stamped +out? + +Typhoid fever is an example of a disease which has only died out in this +country quite recently. When I was a student the hospital wards were full +of it; but to-day most medical students in London pass through their entire +curriculum of five years or more without ever seeing a case. What has been +accomplished for London can also be carried out in other large cities, and +the extinction of the disease is entirely due to improved sanitary +measures, and the destruction of the bacillus which causes the malady. We +often quite legitimately complain of the extravagances of our Government +departments and our County Councils, and of their apathy in questions +affecting the health of the country. We are still awaiting, for instance, +proper legislative measures to ensure the purity of milk. But this at least +we can thank them for--proper methods of disinfection and a purer +water-supply have led to the almost complete extinction of what was a +common and painful and fatal disease. But how does Vivisection come in +here? County councillors are not Vivisectors. No, they are not, but their +action is the undoubted result of public opinion; and that healthy public +opinion is the outcome of medical opinion, which was preached to deaf ears +for many years, and at last succeeded in impressing itself upon the public +at large; and this medical knowledge was the offspring of the only certain +guide in such matters, pathological experiment. It was not until the germ +of typhoid fever was recognised and isolated, not until the conditions of +its growth and the means of its destruction were experimentally verified +upon the lower animals, that any sound knowledge was obtained. Bacteriology +is at the bottom of hygiene; it is by hygienic precautions that certain +diseases are prevented; and the basis of bacteriology is experiment on +animals. + +I will allow myself only one more point, and that relates to the general +question of serum therapy. Some people object to the whole conception of +serum treatment, on the ground that serum and allied substances are 'messy' +things. It was by this very expressive phrase that Lord Justice Fletcher +Moulton summarised and paraphrased the Anti-vivisectionist attitude on the +serum method of treatment. Miss Lind af Hageby on one occasion +characterised it as 'medieval,' a word which is quite meaningless in this +connection, but prettier, I admit, than "Behring's filth product," which is +the elegant name coined for antidiphtheritic serum by one of her friends. + +Filth or dirt has been well defined as matter in the wrong place. Blood on +a carpet, for example, is certainly messy and dirty; it ought not to be +there. But blood or serum (the fluid part of the blood) in the heart, or in +the arteries and veins, is in its rightful place, and it does its duty of +nutrition and so forth when it comes into more immediate contact with the +tissues in the small tubes we call the capillaries. One of these duties is +to exert a protective influence upon the whole body, by destroying the +germs of disease which get in, despite all precautions. We are all of us +exposed, so long as spitting in public places is not prohibited, to the +germs of consumption, but we do not all die of that disease. This is +because the white corpuscles of our blood are in good trim, and able +successfully to devour the bacteria that enter our interior. It is those +people who are run down, and in whom the white corpuscles are 'below par,' +that catch the disease. In assisting the white corpuscles to perform this +important function, the co-operation of certain substances dissolved in the +fluid portion of the blood is also necessary. The most recently discovered +of these auxiliary substances are called _opsonins_. The word opsonin is +derived from a Greek root which means "to prepare the feast." The opsonin +either adds something to the bacterium which makes it tasty to the white +corpuscle, or removes (or neutralises) something which previously made it +distasteful. White corpuscles will not as a rule ingest and devour bacteria +from a pure culture, but they do so eagerly immediately the bacteria are +bathed in serum; and the serum which is most efficacious in acting as a +sort of sauce is that which has been obtained from an animal which has been +previously infected with the same kind of bacteria, and which has recovered +from the ailment such bacteria have set up. + +This is not mere fancy: the whole sequence of events can be easily followed +on a glass slide kept at body temperature and examined with a microscope. + +It is well known that if the yeast plant (which is very similar in many +details to bacteria) is grown in a solution of sugar, the sugar is broken +up and disappears, and two new substances formed from the sugar take its +place. These are alcohol and carbonic acid gas. If bacteria grow in the +blood, they do not produce alcohol, but they do produce other poisons in a +way analogous to that by which yeast produces alcohol. These poisons are +called _toxins_. There are substances in the fluid part of the blood which +are called antitoxins, because they neutralise the toxins produced by the +bacteria. Their presence constitutes a means of defence against the harmful +effects the toxins would otherwise produce. The marvellous part of the +defence is that, although we all have a certain amount of antitoxin in our +blood, the amount increases in proportion to the amount of toxin. It is a +familiar fact that rough manual labour increases the hardness of the hands; +friction stimulates the epidermis or outer skin, so that it grows in +thickness. The body affords numerous similar instances of how it is capable +of rising to the occasion and increasing its defences. Just in the same +way, the presence of a toxin stimulates the living cells to produce more +and more antitoxin, and the blood remains rich in the antitoxin for a +considerable time afterwards. This explains why a person who has had an +infectious disease does not take it readily a second time; he is immune for +a certain number of years, because his blood is so rich in the antidote. + +Now, the principle of serum treatment depends on those ascertained and +definitely proved facts. In the modern treatment of tuberculosis, for +example, the aim of the physician is to increase nature's method of cure: +good food and pure air do much to increase the healthiness of the blood and +fortify its natural power, of destroying the germs; sometimes this alone +suffices. At other times it is not sufficient, particularly if the disease +has advanced and the number of bacteria is too great for the enfeebled +white corpuscles to deal with. Then the physician goes a step farther, and +administers the appropriate opsonin by injecting it under the skin, again +simply increasing the resistance of his patient by a perfectly natural +method. + +In the case of diphtheria, the antitoxin appears to be more efficacious +than an opsonin. A horse is inoculated with diphtheria, and when he has +recovered, his blood is collected. This blood is then rich in antitoxin, +the natural antidote that has enabled the horse to get well again. The +blood is allowed to clot, and the clot is removed; the fluid residue is +called serum, and the serum contains the antidote. If now another horse has +diphtheria, and you want to cure him quickly, what more natural than inject +the serum of the horse who has just recovered? it will save the second +horse the trouble and the time of making the antitoxin for himself, and it +has been proved over and over again that the second horse does recover with +amazing celerity. + +The pathologists then advanced a step, and asked, Why should this antidote +be used solely for animals when they have diphtheria? Why should not the +horse's serum be beneficial to human beings when they are attacked with the +same disease? The diphtheria poison is much more harmful to a man, and +kills him more quickly than it does a horse; it is therefore imperative to +use the antidote early. The crucial experiment was made; entire success +followed it, and now, as Professor Richet says, it is the only treatment +employed, and any medical man who refuses to use it is little short of a +criminal. + +I have entered into this brief and, I trust, simple explanation of serum +treatment, because so many people want to understand it and are unable to +comprehend the technical terms which scientific men, writing for scientific +readers, almost exclusively employ. I am even hopeful that some of the more +reasonable opponents of animal experimentation may be convinced that by +carrying out the new methods of serum therapy, we are not going against +nature but helping her. It is just these 'messy things' that nature uses +for curing infectious diseases, and the introduction of an opsonin or an +antitoxin is not putting matter in its wrong place, but in its right place; +and therefore the use of the terms filth and dirt in this relationship +should be confined either to the foul-mouthed or to the ignorant. + +W. D. HALLIBURTON. + +_July 1908._ + + +P.S.--The proof sheets of Professor Richet's book have passed through my +hands during their issue from the press. Beyond a few verbal amendments, +and a footnote here and there which I have added and initialled, no +alterations have been made in the original. + +I am also responsible for the insertion of Appendix C, regarding the aims +and objects of the Research Defence Society. These additions and minor +alterations have all met with Professor Richet's approval. + +I may mention that the book has not yet been published in French, and is +presented to the public for the first time in English dress. The English +lady who collaborated with Professor Richet in its production has worked +with and studied under him for some years, and it was largely owing to her +persuasion that he consented to express his views publicly. She desires for +the present to remain anonymous. + +W. D. H. + +_October 1908._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PAGE + +PREFACE BY PROFESSOR HALLIBURTON v + + +INTRODUCTION 1 + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NECESSARY LIMITS OF VIVISECTION 7 + + +CHAPTER II + +PAIN AND DEATH 18 + + +CHAPTER III + +CONCERNING ANAESTHESIA IN VIVISECTION 31 + + +CHAPTER IV + +CONCERNING EXPERIMENTATION OTHER THAN VIVISECTION 40 + + +CHAPTER V + +SERVICES RENDERED TO SCIENCE AND HUMANITY BY EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY 59 + + +CHAPTER VI + +MORALITY AND VIVISECTION 72 + + +CHAPTER VII + +ARE LAWS REGULATING VIVISECTION NECESSARY? 91 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +VIVISECTION AND THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE 97 + + +POST SCRIPTUM 114 + +APPENDIX A.--DIPHTHERIA STATISTICS 121 + +APPENDIX B.--BIBLIOGRAPHY 124 + +APPENDIX C.--THE RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY 130 + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +"LA MORT." By BARTHOLOME, in Pere Lachaise, Paris, _Frontispiece_ + +PASTEUR IN HIS LABORATORY, _facing page_ 44 + +"L'ENFANT." In Musee du Luxembourg, Paris, " 53 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The object of this book is to set forth, as impartially as possible, the +reasons which militate for and against vivisection. It is, however, a +physiologist who is speaking, therefore no one will be surprised that he +should defend a practice which is at the basis of the science he teaches. + +May he be permitted, at the same time, to express the high moral esteem +which he feels for all those who, nobly enamoured of a very high ideal, +deny to men the right of inflicting suffering, or even death, upon animals? +There is not a more generous thought than this. Without doubt it is our +duty to have sympathy for, and to abstain from indifference and cruelty in +our dealings with all living creatures: might does not constitute right. +Man is stronger than the animal; but this superiority of power, this might, +does not constitute a right to act contrary to moral obligation. + +Morality does not consist solely of duties towards human beings; it is more +general: it extends to every being capable of suffering. The physiologist +is not an ignoramus, neither is he a barbarian; and he has right well +understood this duty. Physiologists have concluded that experimentation +upon living animals is necessary, and it is the many reasons which have led +them to this opinion which I propose to set forth. But it will, I hope, be +quite understood that my defence of vivisection implies no contempt, no +raillery, no unfriendly sentiment towards those who oppose it. My opponents +are not always courteous or loyal in their polemics; but that is of no +importance; and I shall reply only to such objections as are potent, able, +and rational. In other words, I shall take from among the arguments of +anti-vivisectionists those only which can be called legitimate, those which +deserve to be studied methodically and profoundly by every man of good +faith. I shall deliberately put on one side both abuse and nonsense. + +I should here mention an anonymous leaflet which has received a +considerable amount of publicity in England ("How Scientific Cruelty is +defended," London, 1907, 4 pp.). In this leaflet, a reply is given to an +article which I once published on Vivisection. Certainly, after a lapse of +twenty-six years, I might claim the right to abjure some of the notions of +my youth. Taken as a whole, however, my ideas concerning vivisection have +changed but little, and I still consider it to be necessary. I of course +recognise that the number of physiological laboratories, which I estimated +at thirty in my article, is for present-day purposes too low. During the +last twenty-six years their number has very considerably increased. But a +laboratory of physiology does not necessarily mean a laboratory of +vivisection. There is the whole range of physiological chemistry, the study +of ferments and psychological physiology, not one of which makes any +demands on vivisection. Many eminent physiologists--for example, my former +master, M. Marey--have performed very little vivisection. Even in those +laboratories where vivisection is performed, it is not practised every day, +and especially not upon dogs! Far from it! In Paris, for example, where +every dog experimented upon is a stray animal handed over by the +prefecture of police, there are only about six hundred dogs per annum thus +available for experimentation. Now the laboratories in Paris represent, +from the point of view of activity, at least half of all the laboratories +in France put together. + +It is alleged that Schiff stated to Mrs Anna Kingsford that he had +experimented on more than 14,000 dogs, that is to say, an average of one +dog a day for fifty years! This is obviously an exaggeration, though it is +difficult to trace now who was responsible for it. + +Finally, the remaining objections of the anonymous author in question +amount only to this: The author believes that physiologists work for money +and renown, and not at all for the sake of humanity (!!). Also, that young +men are made cruel by the sight of cruel experiments. But the author simply +forgets this fact, that there is not at this present moment one single +_honourable_ physiologist who would consent to perform long and distressing +experiments on an animal not under anaesthetics. I hold no brief for those +who do otherwise, and I disapprove energetically of the use of _curare_. +The conclusions of my anonymous critic therefore fall to the ground. + +I confess I do not understand the statement that experimentation on rabbits +and other animals is of no use to humanity; and my critic unfortunately +from his point of view has selected Claude Bernard's experiments as an +example of uselessness. Does he not know that Claude Bernard discovered the +presence of sugar in the blood, of glycogen in the liver, of diabetes +produced through nervous action, of the action of oxygen and of carbonic +oxide on the red blood corpuscles, the action of the pancreatic juice on +fat, the part played by the pneumogastric nerve in the innervation of the +heart? These discoveries not only rejuvenated physiology, but exercise a +permanent influence over the whole of medicine, and over the entire realm +of therapeutics! I refuse to accept the antiquated conception of an +empirical medicine which does not aim at discovering the truth; which +thinks solely of clumsy practical application; and which regards as useful +only that which leads immediately and directly to the cure of a given +illness. All truth is useful; all ignorance is baneful; and the sole limit +to man's power lies in the extent of his knowledge. We must forego +discussion with those who cannot understand this fundamental notion. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NECESSARY LIMITS OF VIVISECTION + + +First of all I declare, without fear of being contradicted by any +physiologist, that the past has witnessed much excess, almost guilty +excess, and that at the present time excess might still be pointed out. I +quite believe that, even to-day, here and there in the laboratories of +physiology, young men may be found who are no doubt enamoured of science, +but who have not sufficiently reflected on the nature of pain, and +consequently, through lack of sympathy, are callous and indifferent about +inflicting useless, or almost useless, tortures on innocent animals. On +this point I might mention numerous facts which are extremely painful to +relate, but which nevertheless we must have the courage to acknowledge and +denounce. + +To quote only one instance, a most abominable one, I will mention the +following, which is old, dating back about forty years. In the veterinary +schools, surgical studies, at that time, were not made on the dead carcase, +but on the living animal; so that the wretched victim, generally a horse, +served as a subject, while yet alive, for all the operations which the +veterinary surgeon is called upon to perform. The detestable argument given +at that time to qualify this barbarism was that the veterinary surgeon +should be familiar with the reactions of a living animal, and that, as a +guarantee of being able to perform an operation on a diseased horse, he +should have already practised the same operation several times, not on the +dead body, but on a horse full of life and vigour, able to defend himself, +and obliged therefore to be held down motionless by special processes. But +this is scarcely a sufficient justification. But happily such things no +longer exist; public opinion, stimulated no doubt by the writings of +anti-vivisectionists, has altered the customs of veterinary +experimentalists so well that in no veterinary school to-day are surgical +exercises now performed on other than the dead body. + +Thus, as far as surgery is concerned, unquestionably all vivisection +should rigorously be proscribed. I will discuss later the point as to +whether this interdiction should be moral--that is, recommended as a +precept of humanity, or enforced by law under penalty of imprisonment or +fine. For the moment it will suffice to establish the point that no living +animal should serve for surgical exercises. + +I will go even further, and on this point my opinion will perhaps clash +with that of some of my friends and colleagues: I maintain that no +experimental physiological demonstrations which involve suffering should +ever be performed. Much abuse has taken place in experimentation for +instruction, which is a very different thing from experimentation for +investigation. Important as it may be to demonstrate physiological facts to +students, I do not consider that this importance is greater than the +suffering of an animal. And here again I will take an example, that of the +distinction between the motor nerves and the sensory nerves. + +Magendie, in 1811, following up an idea somewhat hesitatingly put forth by +Charles Bell a few years previously, demonstrated that the anterior nerve +roots, starting from the spinal cord, give movement to the muscles, whilst +the posterior roots are exclusively devoted to sensibility; so that there +are anterior motor nerves and posterior sensory nerves. In order to +demonstrate this, it is evidently necessary to operate on a living and +sensitive animal. + +The discovery was confirmed by several physiologists between 1830 and 1850; +and I do not think we have the right to repeat this cruel experiment for +the sake of the instruction of students. It is not only cruel, but also +useless, for it consists in laying bare the anterior and posterior +nerve-fibres of the spinal cord, with the sole object of allowing students +to see that the excitation of the anterior nerve-fibres provokes movement +and not pain, whilst the excitation of posterior nerve-fibres provokes pain +and not movement. Now, in order to make students clearly understand this +distinction between the motor and sensory nerves, I require only a +blackboard and a piece of chalk; and I claim that, with a piece of chalk +and a blackboard, I am able to explain very clearly all the details of this +phenomenon. Not only does the chalk suffice for comprehension as well as +vivisection, but it is better; because the experiment is so delicate, so +difficult, and, in order to be understood, it must be observed so narrowly, +so closely, that out of the whole class scarcely two or three students are +able to follow the experiment. The rest of the class have before them only +the frightful spectacle of the reactions of a mutilated, suffering animal +under excitations which are made in the very depths of a wound on organs +which they do not see. + +This experiment is rendered more particularly cruel by the fact that +anaesthetics cannot be used, precisely because the point in question is the +sensibility or non-sensibility of the animal, and consequently by its very +nature the operation cannot be made on the insensible animal.[1] + +And now, at once entering further into the difficulty of the problem of +vivisection, we may ask ourselves if we have the right to allow +demonstrations of experimental physiology on living animals that have been +rendered insensible by chloroform. + +Although, further on, I intend coming back to this important question of +anaesthetics, I will say at once I do not understand what repugnance there +can be to operating upon an anaesthetised animal. Once he is insensible he +cannot suffer; why hesitate, therefore, to perform prolonged experiments +upon that insensible being? It appears to me just as inhuman to boil milk +as to excite the pneumogastric nerve of a dog rendered incapable of +suffering. The milk does not suffer; the dog does not suffer; in both cases +it is living matter, but insensible living matter. Consequently, as far as +physiological demonstrations are concerned, every individual capable of +reflection should recognise that there is nothing wrong in experimenting +upon animals that cannot suffer. + +I shall, however, make two restrictions. The first is that professors +should energetically call the attention of the pupils to the fact that the +animal is insensible, and that no one has the right to make the experiment +upon a sensitive animal; that we, physiologists, more than all other men, +are under the obligation of dealing humanely with animals. The professor of +physiology should take advantage of the occasion to develop in his hearers +the best and noblest sentiments, those of pity and of generosity. In a +word, he should excuse himself, so to speak, for performing vivisection, +and prove that such is only legitimate when it entails no suffering. + +The second restriction is that the animal thus chloroformed or anaesthetised +should never be permitted to awaken. If he shows the slightest sign of +sensibility, he should be given chloroform until anaesthesia is complete, +and, finally, he ought to be killed after the experiment, without allowing +him to regain consciousness. + +After all, death under these conditions is a painless end. We ourselves, +who will disappear after a long, and certainly painful, agony, in those +weary moments of pain which will precede our end, shall envy that absence +of suffering, that rapid end of all pain, which is the death of an animal +under an anaesthetic. + +Let us, therefore, banish every painful experiment the object of which is +purely didactic. Moreover, I fail to see what experiments in painful +vivisection are necessary for the teaching of physiology. Studies on reflex +movement can be made perfectly well on a decapitated animal; and in that +case it is well understood that there can be no question of pain; for it +would be absurd to suppose that the spinal cord possesses the power of +receiving the notion of pain. Such a supposition would mean the negation of +the best-established facts of physiology. + +Experiments on the heart (notably of the frog and the tortoise) are +performed very much better on a decapitated animal than on an animal which +is intact; and experiments can even be made on the heart separated from the +organism. It would be downright puerile to lack the courage to watch the +beating of the living heart of a dead tortoise! As for the mammalia, all +experiments on the heart and on the respiration necessary in a course of +lectures on physiology are admirably carried out on an animal rendered +completely insensible.[2] + +We have not, however, quite finished with the difficulties of physiological +instruction: there are certain poisons for which chloroform cannot be used. + +As the essential property of chloroform is to deaden the nervous cells, the +effects of some poisons cannot be studied in an animal profoundly +chloroformed. We can watch very well indeed the effects of carbonic oxide, +which poisons the blood, but many other poisons no longer produce their +characteristic symptoms; nevertheless, it is of the highest importance to +show medical students the effects of certain formidable toxic substances. + +Permit me to quote myself. However little I may be a partisan of painful +experimental demonstrations, I make one exception for an experiment which I +consider it essential to present, in all its horror, before the young men +who attend my lectures. I refer to absinthe. If two or three drops of +essence of absinthe are injected into the veins of a dog, he is at once +seized by a violent attack of epilepsy with hallucinations, convulsions, +and foaming at the mouth. It is truly a terrible sight, one which fills +with disgust and horror all who have witnessed this experiment. But it is +precisely for the sake of arousing this disgust, this horror, that I +perform the experiment. The unfortunate dog will, during ten minutes, have +had an attack of intoxication and absinthian epilepsy; but at the end of an +hour he will have recovered completely. At the same time, the two hundred +students who have witnessed this hideous spectacle will retain, profoundly +engraved on their minds, the memory of that epileptic fury, a memory which +will remain with them to the end of their days. They will then be able, by +their propaganda against absinthe, to exercise around them a salutary +influence, to prevent perhaps ten, fifteen, one hundred human personalities +from destroying themselves by the use of this abominable poison. After all, +it is better to give a dog ten minutes of absinthism than to allow twenty +human families to be plunged, by absinthism, into degradation and misery. + +Finally, as far as surgical exercises are concerned, _they should never be +made on a living animal_; as regards demonstrations of experimental +physiology intended for instruction, _they should be made only on +decapitated or anaesthetised animals_; and as for intoxications,[3] save on +very rare and altogether exceptional occasions, _they should not be made +the object of experimental demonstrations_. + +It seems to me that these formal declarations might be accepted by every +physiologist as well as by every anti-vivisectionist. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The usages in English laboratories in relation to this experiment are +in accord with Professor Richet's views.--(W. D. H.) + +[2] It may not be known to many readers, that it is possible to keep alive +for hours and even days the heart entirely removed from the body of a dead +mammal. On such a heart the action of drugs can be admirably studied and +demonstrated. I once had in my own laboratory a rabbit's heart that +continued to beat for nearly five days after the remainder of the rabbit +had served for the dinner of my laboratory attendant.--(W. D. H.) + +[3] The word intoxication here and elsewhere is used in its literal sense, +viz., poisoning. It is not limited, as in popular parlance, to the +poisonous effects of alcohol.--(W. D. H.) + + + + +CHAPTER II + +PAIN AND DEATH + + +We have not yet touched at the root of the problem, for physiology is not +mere demonstration. The real point at issue is the search for new truths. +The demonstration of an acquired truth, however important this may be, must +not be confused with the research for an unknown truth. Now, physiologists +claim that they have not only the right--but that it is their duty--to +inflict some suffering on animals, if by so doing they diminish human +suffering. I am going to put this proposition to the test. + +1. It is universally recognised, except perhaps by the Brahmans, that we +have the right to kill dangerous or offensive animals. I do not believe +there is a man foolish enough not to kill a mosquito which is stinging him. +No one would hesitate to crush a viper which is on the point of biting +him, or the caterpillar which is eating the leaves of his fruit trees. If +an invasion of locusts threatens our harvest, we have the right to stamp +out these legions of enemies. To refuse man the right to defend himself +against his animal foes is such a ridiculous proposition that it is useless +even to attempt to combat it. + +Not only have we the right to wage war against offensive animals, such as +rats, mice, caterpillars, locusts, bugs, mosquitoes, serpents, wolves, +tigers, hyaenas, and all ferocious and mischievous animals, but we have +also the right to kill such animals as are necessary for our nourishment. I +am quite aware of the fact that certain religions proscribe the use of +meat. I am also aware that an exclusively vegetable alimentation might be +substituted for our customary mixed diet, which is both animal and +vegetable. But, though a vegetable alimentation is possible, our western +civilisation is bound up with the principle of a mixed diet in the ordinary +conditions of life. If, indeed, alimentation should be exclusively +vegetable, it would be useless to hunt, to fish, to rear poultry, to breed +cattle for the market; and it would be necessary to confine our nutriment +exclusively to wheat, corn, maize, rice, herbs, and fruits. Undoubtedly +man, thus nourished, could live, and indeed live very well; but +vegetarianism would be such a radical reform in our customs that in an +article bearing solely upon vivisection I cannot handle such a vast +problem. + +I recognise that those anti-vivisectionists who are at the same time strict +vegetarians are consistent; they live entirely on fruit and vegetables, +make no use of animal flesh, for they contest the right of man to kill an +animal for his nourishment. It is difficult to reply to such vegetarian,[4] +for, after all, animal alimentation is not indispensable to human life. But +we must take things as they actually exist. The bulk of my readers and the +majority of anti-vivisectionists are not vegetarians; and it is only an +innocent pastime to build up new civilisations in the fantastic realms of +Utopia. + +We are not, then, addressing ourselves to vegetarians, but to those +anti-vivisectionists who feel no compunction in drinking broth or milk or +eating the wing of a chicken, who do not shrink with horror from the sight +of a cutlet, and who are capable of eating meat twice a day throughout the +whole term of their existence. These people know full well that it was +necessary to kill the animal which serves them for food: the ox was beaten +to death; the sheep had its throat cut open; the pig was bled to death; the +cod and the sardine were suffocated. I pass over the tortures which special +preparations and elegant sports inflict on the animal for the mere savour +of our meals: geese stuffed by force for months whilst nailed down to +boards; pheasants, partridges, hares, slaughtered in the hunt; fish thrown +into boats, gasping and finally dying after long, agonising struggles. All +these and other tortures are inflicted by man on the animal in order to +satisfy his pleasure and his appetite. + +Perhaps these anti-vivisectionists have never visited a slaughter-house +when the moment for killing the sheep has arrived. There, bound and +stretched out on an immense table, are to be seen five hundred unfortunate +sheep, with their throats thrust forth. The butcher passes in front and, +with a stroke of his knife, slashes open the neck and throat of the poor +wretches; the blood spouts out, convulsions rend the body, and only at the +end of one minute or one and a half minutes does death supervene. This is +death in all its savage horror inflicted by man on the animal. There are +anti-vivisectionists who accept this. Therefore, they recognise implicitly +man's right to kill animals, since they profit by such slaughter for their +alimentation; they add, however, that though man has a right to kill, he +has no right to cause suffering. Is there no suffering in the +slaughter-house? Are anaesthetics ever dreamt of there? + +2. Now it is impossible to point out the boundary line which separates the +being that suffers from the being that does not suffer; and I defy any one +to establish any line of demarcation whatsoever between a being capable of +pain and a being incapable of pain. + +Plants certainly do not suffer. Already, however, there are certain +difficulties in the way of determining the exact boundary line between the +animal and the plant. When we expose an infusion of hay to the air, for +instance, various microbes develop therein. A learned and minute analysis +allows us to distinguish both bacteria and infusoria among the innumerable +micro-organisms which swarm in the infusion. Now we know that bacteria are +plants and infusoria are animals. If, therefore, all animal life were +eliminated from experimentation, we should have no right to boil an +infusion of hay, because we know that it contains infusoria which are +animals. + +These infusoria are so closely related to bacteria that they may be +confused with the latter, as indeed has been the case up to the last few +years. A number of inferior beings were formerly called zoophytes, that is +to say, animal plants; and it is sheer nonsense to suppose that they are +conscious of pain. Sponges, corals, sea-anemones, star-fishes, sea-urchins, +possess a nervous system which is so little developed, and reactions which +are so indistinct, that we can scarcely suppose they possess an intelligent +consciousness, and, consequently, sensibility to pain. Moreover, I do not +see how their reactions would differ if they possessed the notion of pain. +When we touch the tentacles of a star-fish, we notice, near the tentacles +touched, a sort of agitation set up among the neighbouring tentacles, but +this agitation does not extend to the tentacles of the others' arms; so +that a general consciousness does not appear to exist, unless it be in a +prodigiously rudimentary state, among inferior beings. In certain classes +of the mollusca there is no head. Thus oysters and mussels, named on that +account _acephala_, have in all probability no consciousness. I would have +no scruple, therefore, either in eating living oysters, or in experimenting +upon living oysters and mussels, since it seems to me evident that the +notion of pain does not exist in them. + +It is not the same thing with insects; it is here that the first signs of +pain begin to appear. Nevertheless, we must be careful to avoid confusing +pain with signs of pain. When we take a worm and cut it into three +segments, each of these segments will struggle and writhe in a perfect +frenzy. It would, therefore, be necessary to admit that pain existed in +each of these three segments--in other words, that each fragment possesses +a central seat of pain, which is absurd; it is much more rational to +suppose that the perturbed movements of the animal are the result of a +strong nervous excitation, and that the injury is accompanied by defensive +reflex movements but provokes no painful perception. + +Among the superior animals however, and especially among the vertebrata, +pain exists. There can be no doubt about this, although it is impossible to +know exactly in what consists the consciousness of pain in an animal; the +most profound obscurity still reigns, and will perhaps always reign, over +their consciousness and sensations. It would be ridiculous to deny that a +dog suffers when his paw is crushed. Certainly, I fully believe that all +pain is much less clearly perceived by the dog than by man. But, after all, +it is a phenomenon of the same order and identical, save in intensity. + +Now pain, taken in its profoundest sense, consists of two essential +elements: a shock to the conscious self, the _ego_, in the first place; +and, in the second place, the prolongation of the shock. If the self is +not distinctly conscious, if it does not go so far as to assert itself by +the separation of that self from the external world, we cannot say that +pain is possible. The _ego_ never asserts itself with so much force as +under a very painful impression. So that among beings whose reactions are +mechanical, automatic, governed by other forces than by the assertion of +the self and a freely deliberate will, pain becomes so indistinct, so +confused, that it probably does not exist in the strict psychological sense +at all. The greatest philosopher of modern times, Descartes, imagined a +system of machine-animals; this idea has been turned into ridicule by the +ignorant, but nevertheless we are almost forced to return to it when we +dive to the bottom of reflex movements. Now, if we are able to admit that +there is a vague consciousness of the selfhood among superior animals, such +as the mammalia and birds, this consciousness, as far as concerns the +inferior vertebrata, is most certainly extremely hazy, if, indeed, it +exists at all. I have difficulty in conceiving that a frog is able to +ponder over its _ego_, assert its existence in presence of the external +world, and say or think, I SUFFER. No being suffers unless he is able to +think that he suffers, and meditate on his suffering. To suffer means to +have consciousness; and as far as it is permissible for a man to picture to +himself the sensations of a frog, I should say that the frog has no +consciousness of suffering. + +Even as regards the more highly developed vertebrata, such as birds, +rabbits, and guinea-pigs, suffering is probably of a very obscure nature. +It is not enough to say that an animal suffers because we see him animated +by the contortions and reactions of defence. The new-born infant, which has +neither intelligence nor memory nor consciousness, is probably incapable of +real conscious suffering, nevertheless it screams and cries when it is +hungry or when it is pricked. But these screams and tears do not suffice to +allow us to affirm that the child is suffering real pain. It is a nervous +excitation which is translated by the reactions of defence; it is not the +conscious assertion of an _ego_ which has been painfully perturbed. + +Further, for pain to exist the impression must be durable and not +fugitive. The assertion of the _ego_ is not enough. It must be prolonged. A +pain, however intense we may suppose it to be, which traverses the organism +for a second and which leaves no painful echo behind it, is no real pain. I +will allow any one to inflict the most excruciating tortures on me if he +can assure me that, at the end of one second, I shall have lost all +recollection of the suffering and that no trace of the torture will remain. +The extraction of a tooth lasts perhaps only half a second, but you +remember it all your life. In any case, for several minutes the pain +continues to be atrocious. Therefore we may certainly consider that pain is +a phenomenon of memory. Pain is an empty word for every being that has no +memory. + +From these facts we may evolve the general conclusion that, under penalty +of falling into vulgar anthromorphism, we cannot apply to the pain of +animals the data which have been gathered on human pain.[5] With man, the +developed intelligence and vivacious memory enable pain to acquire an +extreme intensity. But with animals, in proportion as the intelligence +lessens and the memory becomes more rudimentary, so does pain diminish, +and, without having the right to be very affirmative, as we are in profound +darkness concerning the consciousness of animals, it appears to me that, as +we descend the scale of the animal kingdom, pain rapidly becomes very hazy, +scarcely perceived, and as indistinct as the consciousness of the _ego_. + +We have, therefore, the right to perform vivisection on beings which, +because they possess no _selfhood_, do not suffer. Now, this absence of +memory, consciousness, and intelligence extends assuredly over the whole of +the vegetable kingdom, almost certainly over all the groups of the +invertebrata, and also probably over all the inferior vertebrata. + +Finally, there remain only the mammalia and birds which are capable of real +pain. Although this pain may be obscure and indistinct, it is certain; and +we must take it into consideration or fall into barbarism; therefore we +shall restrict the problem of vivisection to the vivisection of superior +animals, who, alone, are capable of suffering. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] The true vegetarian is an extremely rare person. The usual so-called +vegetarian ought more properly to be called a non-meat eater, for he does +not scruple to consume milk (intended by nature for the calf) and milk +products (cream, cheese, and butter) and eggs, nor to wear garments made of +wool and leather.--(W. D. H.) + +[5] In the little leaflet already referred to, quotation is made of a +sentence from Professor Pritchard, which says that the various animals have +a skin of different thickness, but that sensibility is the same among all, +including man. It seems to me that Professor Pritchard has scarcely looked +into the questions of general psychology. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CONCERNING ANAESTHESIA IN VIVISECTION + + +A few words are first of all necessary to indicate precisely what +anaesthesia is. + +By definition, an anaesthetic is a substance which, without paralysing the +activity of the heart and the respiration, abolishes sensibility. Indeed, +whenever general sensibility is abolished, there is, at the same time, +abolition of consciousness, of intelligence, and of memory. Another +characteristic of an anaesthetic is that its action is of a transient +nature. At the end of a certain time, it disappears; and then intelligence, +consciousness, and memory return gradually with sensibility. + +It is well known that the admirable discovery of general anaesthesia, +allowing operations to be performed on man without the accompaniment of +pain, was due to chance. It was an American dentist, Horace Wells, and his +colleague, Morton (and others also perhaps), who discovered by chance that +protoxide of nitrogen (commonly called laughing gas) has the power, when +inhaled, of annulling all sensibility to pain for a certain length of +time--sufficiently long for a surgical operation (1840). Then they +discovered the effects of ether (1842). Since then, many other anaesthetics +have been introduced, notably chloroform, prepared by Soubeiran in 1832, +but the anaesthetic properties of which were only discovered in 1847 by +Flourens and Simpson; so that physiologists and surgeons are now quite +familiar with the mode of action of anaesthetics. + +Anaesthetics, in appropriate doses, poison the nervous cells, which are the +seat of intelligence and sensibility, but leave unimpaired the functions of +the cardiac nervous system and of the nervous system governing the +respiration. An individual under chloroform breathes regularly; his heart +beats rhythmically, but all intelligence has disappeared; he has no longer +any will or memory or reflex actions, and the most painful operations can +be performed on him without provoking the smallest phenomenon of +sensibility. + +Further, we have no hesitation in asserting that the anaesthetised animal +behaves like the anaesthetised man; that is to say, chloroform given to an +animal abolishes all sensibility to pain. Vivisection, therefore, on an +anaesthetised animal, does not provoke any pain. Physiologists are so +convinced of this that, however humane they may be, they have no scruple in +performing lengthy vivisections on an animal which is thoroughly +anaesthetised. + +If chloroform, for some reason or other, cannot be employed, many other +anaesthetics, such as chloral and morphia, may be used. Chloral, in certain +doses, produces complete anaesthesia, and it is easier to administer than +chloroform. Formerly, chloral was injected, by a small puncture, into the +veins of rabbits and dogs. I pointed out another method which allows one to +avoid even the puncture; it is sufficient to make a rectal injection of the +solution of chloral. In two or three minutes, the dog, the rabbit, or the +guinea-pig, is seized with a kind of inebriety; he staggers, falls to the +ground, and in about ten minutes he is completely anaesthetised. Large doses +of morphia can be injected into animals without causing immediate death. +An animal under a moderate dose of morphia does not absolutely lose all +sensibility to pain; but the slight pain which he then feels is very +transient. If the animal is submitted to strong excitation, he wakens for a +few seconds, but soon falls back again into profound slumber. Morphia in +moderate doses is not such a perfect anaesthetic as chloral or chloroform; +it is therefore usual under such circumstances to administer also volatile +anaesthetics like chloroform, and quite small quantities of the latter will +then produce perfect anaesthesia. If, however, morphia is given in lethal +doses, as is sometimes done for comparatively short experiments, it is an +absolutely complete anaesthetic in itself, just as it is when a man takes a +fatal dose of morphia, or of its parent substance, opium. + +Nevertheless, chloroform, chloral, and ether have a very serious +disadvantage for the physiologist. They abolish sensibility, but, at the +same time, they abolish the majority of the reflex actions in which +voluntary muscles are concerned. Now, in many experiments, it is +indispensable to be able to study such reflex movements, that is to say, +the fundamental reactions of the nervous system. Thus, physiologists, more +preoccupied, it must be said, with assuring the immobility than the +insensibility of the animal, have had recourse to another substance, +_curare_, the properties of which were investigated by Claude Bernard. + +Curare is a poison which the natives on the banks of the Amazon prepare +from a bind-weed of the strychnia family. They boil the plant with several +ingredients, finally obtaining a sort of blackish resin, or gummy juice, +which they place in little gourds, which can be procured also in Europe. +This juice is used by South American Indians for their arrows, and +physiologists use it to ensure the immobility of the animal on which they +are experimenting. Curare dissolves in water, and a solution of a few +centigrams injected under the skin of a dog, a cat, a rabbit, will bring +about the death of the animal in a few minutes. But death is not due to the +arrest of the heart's action, it is due entirely to paralysis of the +respiration. Therefore the curarised animal can continue to live for +several hours if _artificial_ breathing be substituted for the natural +breathing which is paralysed. For several hours the animal is completely +motionless; the heart beats with force and regularity, provided that the +insufflation of air into the lungs introduces into the blood the quantity +of oxygen necessary for the life of the tissues. Now, under these +conditions, as Claude Bernard has so well demonstrated, we have no proof +that sensibility is abolished also. There is immobility; there is no true +anaesthesia. Take two animals, one chloroformed, the other curarised; both +are equally inert; but the chloroformed animal is insensible, whilst the +curarised animal retains sensibility. + +It is impossible, therefore, to say that curare replaces anaesthetics, +because _curare is not an anaesthetic_.[6] + +Now, in 1894 I was able to discover a substance which has all the +anaesthetic properties of chloroform, and which nevertheless does not +abolish reflex actions, so that physiologists are able to use it for +experiments which, formerly, necessitated the use of curare. This substance +is called _chloralose_; it is obtained by mixing anhydrous chloral with +glucose. It is not necessary for me to describe here in detail its chemical +or physiological properties; I will only say that in very small doses +(about twenty-five centigrams) it is an excellent hypnotic for man, and +that in larger doses, injected into the vein of a dog or a rabbit, it +brings about complete anaesthesia without affecting either the breathing, +the heart, or the reflex actions. + +Since this discovery, many physiologists--and I regret not to be able to +say so of every physiologist--have given up curare and use nothing but +chloralose, which is a perfect anaesthetic, and which allows the reflex +actions to be studied although anaesthesia is perfect. + +It may be objected that a tiny puncture has to be made in the vein to +introduce the chloralose into the circulation; but this puncture is really +such a trifle that it would be sheer childishness to pay any attention to +it. What doctor would hesitate to make a puncture in the skin of his +patient for the injection of a solution of morphia? However, if +sentimentality be pushed to such a degree as to shrink from touching the +vein of a dog in order to put him to sleep, even this tiny puncture can be +avoided by mixing the chloralose with the food of the animal to be +experimented upon. In half an hour or three-quarters of an hour after the +mixture is given he is in a state of perfect anaesthesia. + +For these reasons, vivisection with anaesthesia seems to me to be quite +legitimate. As soon as it is recognised that man has the right to kill the +animal, he has the right to kill him as he pleases, provided he spares him +all suffering. + +Let us also reflect a little on this point: an animal has to die just as +much as we ourselves. Now, natural death would certainly be for him a long +and cruel agony, lasting several hours, several days, perhaps several +weeks. Well, then, we replace hideous old age, the agony of prolonged +tortures due to disease, by a dreamless sleep, which at once plunges the +animal into nothingness, without his passing through the intermediary stage +of necessary suffering. Is this what is called being inhuman? For my part, +I shall regret on my death-bed that no physiologist will be found whose +conscience will permit him, or, if so, who would have sufficient courage to +help me to pass away under the influence of chloroform, ether, chloralose, +morphia, or chloral, thus saving me from the throes of the final struggle, +and bestowing upon me a peaceful death and an easy termination of all +suffering. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] In England, the Vivisection Act expressly states that curare is not to +be regarded as an anaesthetic, and this proviso has been loyally accepted by +English physiologists. On those rare occasions when curare is used, and the +occasions are very rare indeed, and year by year they become rarer, a +volatile anaesthetic such as chloroform or A.C.E. (alcohol, chloroform, +ether) mixture is administered at the same time in sufficient amount to +render anaesthesia absolute. One should add that since Claude Bernard's work +on curare, physiologists have seen reason for doubting whether it leaves +sensibility intact, as Bernard thought. But as there is doubt on the +question, and the available evidence in favour of its lulling sensations is +small, it is still considered advisable to retain Bernard's views, and act +as though it is not an anaesthetic at all.--(W. D. H.) + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CONCERNING EXPERIMENTATION OTHER THAN VIVISECTION + + +We must, however, give to the word "Vivisection" its largest acceptation. +It is not only a question of cutting nerves, of stimulating the glands, or +of exciting the muscles. There are experiments of much longer duration in +which there is no mutilation properly speaking, but _intoxication_,[7] +produced by the injection of poisons and disease germs. + +It is, indeed, evident that pain can be provoked in other ways than by a +sharp-edged instrument, which can always be done under anaesthesia. But may +inoculation be performed? May prolonged _intoxication_ be caused? To treat +the question in all its fulness, we will put the problem in the following +manner. + +In order to study a disease, have we the right to give that disease to an +animal? + +For my part, there can be no doubt on the point, and I affirm that such is +our right. + +As a matter of fact, and as every unbiassed person is forced to recognise, +it is only by experimentation that these diseases can be studied +thoroughly. Clinical observation, bearing exclusively upon man, can only +give incomplete results, much poorer, though its documents are +multitudinous, than the results furnished by experimentation, which can be +infinitely varied at will. If we were limited to the Hippocratic method of +observation, which consists in studying the symptoms and the progress of a +morbid affliction, we should be reduced to poor enough resources; and if +meditation on the aphorisms of Hippocrates constituted the whole extent of +our medical science, medical science would be a sad vacuum. Fortunately, +however, such is not the case. Marvellous progress has been realised, which +allows us to entertain quite other ideas than those of the Father of +Medicine on the nature of diseases, and consequently on their treatment and +their prevention. Those very persons who rise up in arms against +physiological experimentation would not, I imagine, desire to be handed +over to the care of a Hippocratic doctor if they were ill, to a doctor who +took no notice of any modern discoveries under the pretext that they were +acquired by experimentation _in anima vili_. + +If, however, we wish to discuss the problem thoroughly, it will not do to +remain on indefinite ground. Let us arrive at precise facts. I will mention +only three discoveries, the importance of which is considerable, and which +have been established solely by experimentation. + +First of all, there is _antisepsis_. For centuries and centuries surgeons +operated without understanding why it was that death struck down so +unmercifully those operated upon. In vain did surgeons display great skill; +in vain did the operation succeed: the patient died. Erysipelas, lock-jaw, +abscess-formation and gangrene reigned supreme. Every confinement exposed +the mother to death; the slightest wounds were followed by the most serious +after-effects; in certain amputations, for instance, the mortality was 70 +per cent. No one dared to touch either the peritoneum or the joints, +because every operation on the peritoneum or on the articulations was sure +to prove fatal. But Lister and Pasteur came! These two men, simultaneously +and concurrently, demonstrated that all disease following on an operation +was the result of infection by parasites. By preventing the wounds from +being contaminated by parasites, infection was prevented; for the wounds +themselves are innocent, as long as they are not infected. + +This is the astounding and simple truth which Lister and Pasteur +established. And let no one pretend it is so simple that the data could +have been furnished by clinical observation alone, for such an assertion +would be contradicted by the facts. + +Thousands and thousands of surgeons, right up to 1868, had understood +nothing of infection. In order to understand this big word "infection," +which sums up in itself the whole of surgery and the whole of medicine, it +was necessary to inject pus into animals, gather the microbes which then +developed in the blood of these animals, isolate the microbes, cultivate +them, inject them afresh, and produce an experimental disease. It was in +this manner only that we were able to understand the mechanism of +antisepsis, and, consequently, apply it to the treatment of operations and +wounds. Three or four volumes could be written on this subject alone, but +all I can attempt here is a summary of the main points. I say without +hesitation that as long as clinical medicine confined itself only to the +observation of patients, it was able to understand nothing, to analyse +nothing, to foresee nothing. It was necessary to experiment, to sacrifice a +few hundred mice, rats, and rabbits, in order to demonstrate that +erysipelas is an inoculable disease, that puerperal infection is of the +same nature as purulent infection, that all these diseases are due to +micro-organisms, and that certain substances, called antiseptics, can stop +the development of these fatal germs. + +It appears quite natural to-day (and it seems to simple minds, ignorant of +the past and powerless to imagine the past, that these notions have been +current from all eternity) to know that instruments, water, and linen +heated to 120 deg. contain no living germs. But this discovery is not so very +old. It was Pasteur who, between 1863 and 1873, established it by some +memorable experiments at the cost of a little disease given to rats and +guinea-pigs. + +[Illustration: PASTEUR IN HIS LABORATORY. + +_facing p. 44._] + +Now--and I appeal to the good sense of my readers--would it be better to +efface the suffering of those rats, those guinea-pigs, those rabbits, and +return to the olden times when the mortality in lying-in hospitals was +often 40 per cent. (it is to-day, 0.02 per cent.!)? Must we condemn Lister +and Pasteur as great criminals because they dared to inoculate microbes +into a few rabbits and bring about in those unfortunate animals--they would +have died a long time ago even without that--experimental ailments in order +to ward off malignant diseases from thousands and thousands of human +beings? + + * * * * * + +The second discovery which I shall mention is that of the infectiousness of +tuberculosis. Thousands and thousands of doctors had had tuberculous +patients under their care. Three thousand years ago, Hippocrates described +tuberculosis with as much precision as could be done to-day. Illustrious +physicians in every land had tried to analyse the nature of this terrible +disease and to unravel its cause; nevertheless, they were unable, from +clinical observation alone, to prove what is to-day quite commonplace +knowledge, viz., that tuberculosis is infectious. In 1864, a French doctor, +Villemin, conceived the simple and ingenious idea of inoculating rabbits +with the tuberculous matter found in the lungs of consumptive patients. +These rabbits became tuberculous; they died in a few weeks with tuberculous +granulations in lungs and liver. It was thus demonstrated that tuberculosis +was infectious. Later on, in 1878, Koch discovered that the active agent of +this infection is a special microbe. But, however important may be the +discovery of the microbe of tuberculosis (the tubercle-bacillus of Koch), +the essential dominating fact is that tuberculosis is infectious. + +As soon as this great fact became known, a profound revolution occurred in +social hygiene, in the treatment and in the prevention of this terrible +evil. We know now the consumptive man carries in his lungs and sputum the +germ capable of developing the same evil in others; consequently we know +how to preserve ourselves against tuberculosis. We must purify or destroy +the habitations wherein consumptives have lived, burn or carbolise all the +sputum, make spitting in public places a punishable offence, take sanitary +measures against unhealthy meat, defend our children against contaminated +milk--in a word, we are armed against a disease, the sole and unique cause +of which, as experimentation alone has taught us, is infection. + +Formerly it was believed that diseases were due to a sort of divine anger, +or, what amounts pretty much to the same thing, to certain imperceptible +epidemic exhalations stretching over whole populations, or attacking +isolated individuals, striking like an exterminating angel, as his fancy +chose, such or such an unhappy victim. A sort of will or caprice, governed +only by chance, was exercised in relation to this disease, and man was +powerless, because he was unarmed against chance. He did not even think of +it. He resigned himself to being ill, and waited for the disease, without +doing anything to fight against it, benumbed under a kind of Oriental +fatalism. The doctor shook his head, bore testimony to the evil, and +confined himself to prescribing inefficacious treatments which were only, +according to a celebrated saying, a long meditation on death. + +But the times have changed; there is no longer any fatality in +tuberculosis; there is imprudence, there is error, there is vice, and, +specially, social vice. We may almost say that, if there are still +consumptives in our midst, it is because of our defective social +institutions. We leave innumerable populations steeped in misery, seven or +eight individuals living in the same infected hovel. In the slums of our +large cities, swarms of infants are to be found morally and materially +perverted by misery. Therefore, if consumption still exists, it is our own +fault; it is no longer as it was in olden times, when we knew not, because +_now_ we know. The plague can be battled with; and if it still has so much +power left, it is because we have not the courage to apply to public and +individual hygiene the treatment science has definitely shown us should be +applied. To foresee is to know; and now that we know, we must not forget +that it is to experimenters, and to experimenters alone, that we are +indebted for this great benefit. + +Moreover, however imperfect our defence against tuberculosis may still be, +it is by no means _nil_; great progress has been made; the mortality has +decreased in a considerable proportion. During the last twenty-five years, +it has decreased by about 25 per cent., and notably in England, where the +laws of public hygiene, energetically upheld by the good sense of the +people, are strictly applied, the mortality has diminished by 50 per cent. +This is only a beginning, and the near future will bring about the complete +extermination of the disease. + +Now, honestly, I ask if the rabbits which Villemin sacrificed weigh more in +the scales of universal progress, and even in public morality, than the +three millions of individuals who, by progress in hygiene, have been +preserved from an early and painful death. I estimate at a high price the +life and the sufferings of fifty rabbits, but, at the risk of appearing a +barbarian, I prefer, to these fifty rabbits, the three millions of young +people who have been saved by Villemin's discovery, and the millions which +it will still save. + +All the more so, inasmuch as experimental studies on tuberculosis have not +only preserved men; they have also preserved animals. Thanks to Koch, there +is now a very simple way of recognising if an animal is or is not +tuberculous. Koch was able to extract from tubercle bacilli, a substance +which he has called _tuberculin_. At first he thought tuberculin cured the +disease; but this was an error. Subsequent experiments showed that +tuberculin exercised quite a different action to that of healing. It has +the property, when injected in small doses into a tuberculous animal, of +provoking an intense fever, whilst it produces no reaction whatsoever in a +normal animal. If, therefore, tuberculin is injected into every animal in +the cattle shed, we can feel sure--and this is impossible otherwise--that +such or such animals are tuberculous or healthy. All cows that show a rise +in temperature after an injection of tuberculin are tuberculous; the +others, on the contrary, are in good health. + +Thus the sanitary inspection of stables and cattle-sheds can be carried out +thoroughly; and we are now able to protect not only men but also animals +from the disease of tuberculosis. + +Such results could only have been obtained at the cost of many and +methodical experiments. Whatever may be the genius of anti-vivisectionists, +they would never have been able to imagine anything similar had they been +left to their own intellectual powers. It is not in the study that we are +able to discover this long series of unforeseen, extraordinary, almost +miraculous facts which laboratory experimentation has been able to find +out. Man, said Pascal, tires of conceiving sooner than Nature tires of +providing; and experimentation is man's method of interrogating Nature. + + * * * * * + +The third discovery which I shall take as an example demonstrating the +value of experimentation, is the history of _Serotherapy_. And I may be +permitted to dwell somewhat on this subject as I had the good fortune, in +1888, of making the decisive experiment which was the beginning of +serotherapy. + +Whilst inoculating some rabbits and dogs with a microbe taken from pus +(_Staphylococcus pyosepticus_), I developed a certain disease both in the +rabbits and in the dogs. But the dogs did not die, whilst all the rabbits +died from the results of the inoculation. I thought then that, the cause of +that resistance being due to the difference of blood, I might be able to +make the rabbit refractory to the infection by injecting it with the blood +of a dog in normal health. The experiment succeeded. The rabbits which had +received the blood of the dog, when they were afterwards infected with the +staphylococcus, became very ill but did not die. Later on, I took, not the +blood of a dog in normal health, but the blood of a dog that had received +the infection of the staphylococcus and had recovered from that infection, +and I injected this blood into the rabbits. _Now the rabbits that received +the blood of the infected, healed dog had acquired complete immunity to +this form of microbe infection_: the principle of serotherapy was +discovered (5th Nov. 1888). + +[Illustration: "L'ENFANT." + +_In Musee du Luxembourg, Paris._ + +_facing p. 53._] + +Since then, serotherapy has been applied, by Behring in Germany and by Roux +in France, to diphtheria (1892). These two savants showed that the blood of +animals, and especially of horses, that had been infected with diphtheria +and cured, could, when injected into patients attacked by diphtheria, +diminish, in an extraordinary proportion, the duration and intensity of the +disease. There is no other treatment for diphtheria to-day. A doctor is +guilty, and even criminal, if he does not use it, for the therapeutic +results of this treatment are marvellous. + +I do not speak of clinical observation only. All those who have seen the +effects of one of these injections of serum on children down with +diphtheria are veritably stupefied at the resurrection which they witness +only a few minutes after the injection. The unfortunate child with his +purple face and convulsed limbs, scarcely breathing, comes back to fresh +life as soon as he has received the beneficent injection of serum. The +facts are so decisively clear that even if we have only seen them once we +can never again forget them. But I shall simply call the attention of my +readers to the following statistics, the result of more than 500,000 +observations made in England, in the United States, in France, in Russia, +in Germany, in Italy, in Austria, in fact everywhere: the death-rate in +diphtheria before 1892 (for the serotherapic method took four years to +become known and practised) was 45 per cent. After 1892, this death-rate +fell to 12 per cent.[8] Consequently, out of every hundred patients +suffering from diphtheria, thirty are saved by the serotherapic treatment. + +Let us stop for a moment to consider these figures, which seem mere +abstractions to those who have not reflected. At the present time, about +300,000 children per annum in France are attacked by diphtheria; that makes +4,500,000 from 1892 to 1907. The proportion of 30 per cent. is therefore +1,350,000. The number of children who have been saved in France alone by +serotherapy in fifteen years is therefore 1,350,000. Let us put it in round +numbers at one million only; this would be sufficient to justify the death +of the twenty-five dogs and the one hundred rabbits which I sacrificed, and +of the two hundred horses which Behring and Roux used for the preparation +of the anti-diphtheria serum. A million families in mourning, a million +hopes mowed down in the bud! Only fanatics would dare to say this weighs +for nought in the balance. + +Moreover--and why should I not say it aloud?--this so-called humanity of +anti-vivisectionists seems to me the antithesis of humanity. To satisfy a +conception which they have forged out of a certain hazy ideal, they make +quick shrift of human life and suffering. A hundred weeping mothers, a +hundred unfortunate children with gaping throats, suffocating, gasping, the +death-rattle at hand--that is what these sensitive souls declare is nothing +beside one rabbit which has had to receive a little blood of a dog into its +abdomen! These philanthropists are creatures of a fixed idea! Let humanity +suffer, weep and die! What does that matter, provided that their fixed +idea, driven right up to the hilt of delirium, triumphs! After all, if they +persist in believing that the faint and uncertain suffering of a sick +rabbit is not worth the certain and excruciating suffering of a thousand +human creatures, I can say but one thing: I pity them from the very bottom +of my heart. + + * * * * * + +These examples--antisepsis, tuberculosis, and serotherapy--will suffice +perhaps to justify experimental pathology. There is now another +experimental science which I am going to try to justify also. This is +_Therapeutics_. + +We are only able to learn the action of medicaments by studying the action +of poisons, for all medicaments in strong doses are poisonous. Now, to +understand a poison thoroughly, we must experiment with it on the animal. +Simpson administered chloroform to men only after Flourens had determined +its anaesthesic properties on animals. Liebreich, after he discovered +chloral, studied its physiological properties on animals, and only after +long and learned studies was he able to give it a place in human +therapeutics. At the present day, chloral is one of the most extensively +used medicines, one which has relieved innumerable patients. When I carried +out my research on chloralose, before studying its effects on myself, I +began by giving it to cats and fowls. I was ignorant of the degree of toxic +power of this new, still unknown substance, and, at the risk of appearing +very pusillanimous, I did not wish to begin on myself; I preferred trying +it on a fowl. Not that I estimate my life very highly, but after all, +however low an estimate I may place on my own life, I think it is worth +more than that of a fowl. Many other medicines have been thus experimented +with on animals before it was possible to ascertain their effects on man. +Kocher discovered cocaine, Knorr antipyrine; and these two admirable +medicines did not find their way into therapeutics until their mode of +action and their toxic power had been ascertained on animals. + +In a word, the whole of present-day therapeutics has for foundation, not +only ancient clinical observation, which it would be supremely foolish to +disdain, but also the experiments of modern times, which it would be +equally foolish to proscribe. + +Perhaps certain people imagine that there are no therapeutics, and that we +can replace by auto-suggestion, prayer, or hypnotisation, everything which +doctors generally use to cure or allay disease. It is difficult to reply to +such objections, because those who make them have never opened a work of +science nor seen a patient. They see things as they wish to see them. They +imagine that the exterior world is constructed according to their interior +vision, and they do not deign to come into contact with reality. They +believe that enthusiasm can supply the place of instruction, and that a +certain doubtful generosity can replace profound and patient study. They +maintain perhaps that chloral does not make one sleep, that salicylate of +soda does not alleviate rheumatic pains, that bromide of potassium does not +check attacks of epilepsy. Perhaps they will even continue to say so for a +long time to come. Let them talk; progress will be made without them. + + _Les chiens aboient et la caravane passe._ + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] See footnote, p. 17. + +[8] These statistics can be found in all technical works; and I refer those +who may be curious to study them in detail to the special memoirs and +excellent treatises on pathology which have been published in England, +France, and Germany. + +See also appendix. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SERVICES RENDERED TO SCIENCE AND HUMANITY BY EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY + + +I now come to a favourite theme of anti-vivisectionists, viz., that +experimental physiology has produced nothing, and that the differences of +opinion among _savants_ are so considerable that this alone proves the +impossibility of vivisection ever establishing anything permanent. + +Here again it is difficult to reply because of the very ignorance of the +honourable gentlemen who criticise us. Most certainly there still remain +many disputed and disputable points in physiology, and nothing is easier +than to find therein striking and abundant contradictions. If we wished to +amuse ourselves, we might write five or six big volumes on the subject; but +let us leave this tedious and useless labour to the anti-vivisectionists to +accomplish to their hearts' content. I prefer to tell them, what they do +not wish to know perhaps, that contradiction is the very essence of +science. As our demonstrations appeal not to faith but to reason; as we +admit free discussion, free investigation from every side; any proposition +must have multitudinous and positive proofs in its favour before it can be +adopted without hesitation. Even our opinions were never prescribed by +faith or violence; we take pleasure in provoking discussion and +contradiction. With our adversaries' leave be it said that a dogmatic, +irreproachable book, where there was no place for hesitation or doubt, +would be the very negation of science. Even the treatises of geometry and +mechanics, although non-experimental, rational sciences, sometimes +contradict themselves. It has been rightly said that the history of science +is the history of human errors--errors which, little by little, draw nearer +and nearer to supreme truth without ever attaining it. We must understand +this, or we shall be rebelling against the conception of scientific truth. + +Now, in treatises on physiology, we find a number of well-demonstrated +truths, and a still larger number of truths only half demonstrated, and, +consequently, contested. Our successors will also certainly find in our +books of to-day an enormous number of errors. + +What conclusion is to be drawn from this fact? Have those who reproach the +science of physiology with being only a tissue of contradictions and errors +ever opened a book on physiology (for example, the text-book of Schaefer, +in two large, compact, closely written volumes of 1000 pages each)? They +would there find thousands of positive, incontestable facts on all the +questions which concern physiology. + +Let us take, each in its turn, the great functions of life, and we shall +see that they have become known only by experimentation. + +1. _The Circulation of the Blood_, suspected by Michel Servet, Realdo +Colombo, and Andreas Cesalpin, was really established by Harvey in 1628. + +Yet Harvey was only able to demonstrate it by experiments performed on the +living bodies of frogs and deer. Since Harvey's time, the laws of the +circulation have been established with admirable precision. Hales +demonstrated the pressure of blood in the vessels. Chauveau and Marey +introduced into the heart of a horse an apparatus which enabled the +pressure of the blood in the heart, in the arteries, and in the veins, to +be measured. Weber found that the pneumogastric nerve stopped the heart's +action. Ludwig applied the graphic method to the circulation. Delicate +instruments have been constructed which give diagrams of the pulsations and +measure the pressure of the blood in the arteries and in the heart of man. +Claude Bernard discovered the nerves which regulate the movements of the +vessel walls. In short, the whole history of the circulation is due solely +to vivisections, and it would be ridiculous to speak of our uncertainties +in this respect; for the essential mechanical or nervous laws of the +circulation are as well known now as those of the combinations of nitrogen +with oxygen. + +2. _The Respiration_ remained profoundly unknown, as to its inmost nature, +right up to Lavoisier's time. Lavoisier placed some guinea-pigs in a box +filled with ice, measured the quantity of heat thrown off, the quantity of +oxygen consumed, the quantity of carbonic acid produced; and he was thus +able to deduce a fundamental law of life, viz., that life is essentially +combustion. He made experiments on himself also; but however great one's +respect for the life of a guinea-pig may be, must it be considered wrong +that Lavoisier should have experimented on the guinea-pig before +experimenting on himself? + +As for the laws which regulate this consumption of oxygen and this +production of carbonic acid, to discover these it was necessary to put into +cages animals of every species and of every size. And there is, perhaps, +not a single physiologist who has not made this experiment, at the risk of +annoying the cats and dogs thus exposed--without, as far as that goes, +doing them any harm--to varied temperatures or to different diets. +Moreover, in order to study the respiratory exchanges, physiologists +experiment on man as well; is, therefore, the extraordinary scruple against +experimenting on animals to be imposed upon them also? + +To take an excellent example of the services which experimental physiology +can render not to science only--which would, indeed, be quite sufficient +to justify them--but to humanity, I will cite the experiments of Paul Bert +with relation to elevated atmospheric pressures. There are certain workmen +who are obliged to work under water, at a depth of 20 to 30 yards, for the +construction of piers and bridges, or the exploration of sunken vessels. +Now, it had long been observed that some of these men died suddenly on +returning to the surface. Experimental physiology was able to discover the +cause of that sudden death. When a man (or an animal), after having been +subjected to several times the normal atmospheric pressure, is suddenly +released from this pressure, the nitrogen dissolved in the blood is +disengaged suddenly: this produces gaseous embolism, that is to say, +bubbles of gas are formed, which block the blood-vessels and prevent the +blood circulating in the capillaries. Knowing this, the death of men +working at a pressure of four atmospheres could then be avoided by +releasing them slowly, that is by bringing them slowly back to the normal +atmospheric pressure. Is it barbarous to attach more importance to the +death of these men than to the death of the few dogs and mice that served +to establish this law? + +I was able to demonstrate that, if the temperature of the air is very high, +as in the hottest days of summer, dogs that are muzzled die rapidly of +hyperpyrexia (_i.e._ high fever), for they are no longer able to cool +themselves by panting. It is true that this experiment cost the lives of a +few dogs, but has it not saved many others by pointing out that dogs should +not be muzzled under certain conditions? It goes without saying I am not +speaking of the theoretical consequences of this experiment. + +Artificial respiration, which can restore to life the apparently drowned, +is one, of the conquests of experimental physiology; for we have been able +to determine the best method and the essential conditions (for artificial +breathing) by experiments of a very precise nature. Is it nothing to know +how to restore to life the apparently drowned? + +3. _The Process of Digestion_ has also been learned solely by experiment. +In the history of science there are two or three cases of individuals in +whom a wound or an operation has produced a gastric fistula, that is to say +an abdominal opening through which the stomach can be reached and food +introduced. Had we remained satisfied with these accidental observations, +we should have obtained but mediocre results. Physiologists therefore have +made experimental gastric fistulae. Dogs thus operated on, after an illness +of a few days, recover thoroughly. Some physiologists have kept dogs for +several years in this condition: gay, caressing, docile, they did not +appear to complain of their lot. They were better nourished, more petted +and loved than the many starving dogs which roam about the country. They +were not a whit more unhappy than was Alexis St Martin (observed in 1831 by +Dr Beaumont) and Marcellin (whom I observed in 1878, at the beginning of my +career). Quite recently an eminent Russian physiologist, Pawloff, has, by +making gastric fistulae in animals, been able to discover a number of +important facts, absolutely necessary to be known for the treatment of +diseases of the stomach, and even for the establishment of a normal +alimentation. + +The problem of alimentation is, indeed, one of the most essential, perhaps +the most essential, in the history of humanity. I suppose that +anti-vivisectionists are aware of the fact that, even in Europe, large +populations exist who are insufficiently nourished. Under these conditions, +is it not desirable to know exactly the quantities of carbon, nitrogen, +salt, lime, and phosphorus which are necessary for animals, and +consequently for man? Should not anti-vivisectionists, interested in +vegetarianism, before venturing to institute a vegetable diet for man, try +it first of all upon carnivorous animals, so as to know how a mixed +alimentation can be modified by a vegetable alimentation, and to what +extent those modifications are compatible with health? + +4. _The Nervous System_ is not so well known, so far as its functions are +concerned, as the circulatory system or the digestive system. Nevertheless, +positive discoveries are extremely numerous: the action of the nerves on +the glands and on the muscles; the part played by the different portions +of the brain; nervous degenerations; the laws governing reflex actions--all +this constitutes a formidable body of well-established facts. I do not +pretend that everything is known. Alas! No! There are still innumerable +truths to be discovered, and serious errors are doubtless most learnedly +taught, with many contradictions, much uncertainty, much confusion--all of +which simply proves that physiology is not a science whose last chapter has +yet been written, that the last word of this science has not yet been +pronounced. Nevertheless, blind indeed would the man be who would venture +to conclude that physiology was not a science; or to assert that physiology +is a science of little importance; that the role of the physiologist, from +the point of view of the alleviation of human miseries, is null; and that +knowledge of physiological facts is useless. Will it be claimed that the +doctor has no need of a knowledge of physiology? I will reply by a +comparison I am accustomed to make before my medical students when I wish +to make them understand the necessity of a sound physiological education. + +Let us suppose that a watchmaker claimed to be able to cure disordered +watches, but at the same time declared himself unable to tell by what +springs and by what mysterious mechanism a healthy watch should mark the +hour; that watchmaker would inspire me with a very small amount of +confidence, and I would not go to him; for, until the contrary is proved to +me, I believe that an indispensable condition for repairing a watch when +out of order is to know how a watch should work when in good repair. + +Physiology exists only because there have been physiologists. By that I do +not mean to say that all the truths of physiology are due exclusively to +vivisection. I only claim that physiology without vivisection would be +strangely clumsy, limited to a few empirical facts, and that, if +vivisection be proscribed, we must resolutely give up classing physiology +among the sciences. We may study the stars and the earth, electricity and +heat, geography and history, and are we to be forbidden to study the +functions of living matter? Such a proposal is obviously absurd, for of all +the sciences accessible to man, physiology is that which is nearest to +him. + +It is only the ignorant who dare assert that experimentation on animals +cannot be applied to man. There are of course differences which +physiologists train themselves to perceive; for example, certain poisons +are almost innocuous to some animals, and are very fatal to man. The +alkaloid of belladonna, atropine, is a thousand times more toxic for a man +than for a goat. It is difficult to kill a goat with morphia, whilst a drop +of laudanum kills a new-born babe. Carbonic oxide is absolutely harmless +for the invertebrata which have no blood. Crayfish and snails live with +impunity in pure oxide of carbon. And I could cite a number of other facts +which are described in detail in every treatise of physiology or +pharmacology. + +But what does it matter to us if we know it?--and we can nearly always know +it. There are functional differences between men and animals; and +physiologists know these perfectly well by their training; but there are, +above all things, much more striking resemblances. It would be, for +instance, ridiculous to suppose that oxygen did not dissolve in our blood +in about the same way in which it dissolves in the blood of a cat or a +rabbit; that the pneumogastric nerve, which stops the heart of the cat and +the rabbit, will not stop the heart of man; that the arterial pressure, +which is 16 c.m. of mercury in the horse, the dog, and the cat, is 1 c.m. +or 1.60 c.m. in man; that the transformation of albuminous matters into +urea takes place differently in the dog and in man. On the contrary, +everything goes to prove the general laws are the same, and that the +physiology of man, whilst not rigorously identical in every respect with +the physiology of the animal, is nevertheless sufficiently analogous to +enable a _general physiology_ to comprise in its vast laws the functions of +every living being, man, mammal, vertebrata, invertebrata, and even every +living cell. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MORALITY AND VIVISECTION + + +If we took the assertions of anti-vivisectionists literally, we should +arrive at the strange conclusion, that the victims of vivisection are +immensely numerous, and that vivisection is one of the calamities of the +century. As a matter of fact, the number of victims due to physiology is +very low. Let us try to count them up. + +There are only about twenty laboratories in France where experiments on +animals are made. Let us allow that there are twenty in England, twenty in +Italy, forty in Germany, and fifty in other countries, making a total of +150 laboratories. If we suppose that a dog, a cat, and a rabbit are +sacrificed every day in each of these laboratories, we should certainly +exaggerate. + +Let us suppose, nevertheless, that it is so; and let us even admit five +victims a day, with 300 working days in the year, which is also an evident +exaggeration: this will make about 200,000 victims a year. This number, +which seems very considerable, is in reality very small, if we put it +against the enormous number of living beings. Probably about two thousand +millions of mammals die every year, so that the proportion of animals that +suffer a little (and very little) through the act of man in his search for +knowledge is one in 10,000, in other words, a negligible quantity. + +In the immense earthly universe are thousands and thousands of pains, of +fierce, incessant struggles between living animals. Every rock in the +ocean, every tree in the forest, shelters ferocious combats, and is the +constant scene of painful death-agonies. Darwin has admirably shown that +life is a struggle for life, that the weak are crushed by the strong, and +that the voice of living nature is a cry of distress rather than a hymn of +joy. Therefore, in this universal concert of animal pain and of human pain, +the slight pain of animals experimented upon is a little thing, and from +an absolute point of view we have the right to disregard it. + +Think well over it all for a moment. By giving an experimental disease to a +rabbit, for example, I scarcely change its lot. If I had left it to itself, +in one, two, or perhaps three years it would have been attacked by another +disease, probably more cruel than the tuberculosis with which I infected +it. The lot of dogs which die of old age is scarcely enviable. How many +poor old dogs have I seen, impotent from rheumatism, completely blind, no +longer able to crawl about, covered with disgusting ulcers, seeming to beg +for the finishing stroke which would put an end to their misery! And old, +worn-out horses! What a spectacle! This residuum of existence of old +animals is truly pitiable, and, taking everything into consideration, it is +not an enormous dose of happiness we have left them in not sacrificing them +when they were young. + +But I shall not dwell upon this argument, for it might also be applied to +human beings. The Greeks said: "Happy are they who die young, for they are +beloved of the gods." Perhaps some day human ethics will allow us to spare +our dear ones the cruel and useless sufferings of old age! I know not. But +what I do know is that it is not inhuman to sacrifice an old horse or an +old dog in order to save it from going through all the tortures which old +age and disease hold in reserve for him. + +In any case, the sufferings produced by physiologists who inoculate +diseases into animals weigh very little in comparison with natural +suffering, not only because the suffering of animals is always more or less +immersed in the nihilism of semi-consciousness, but also because these +experimental sufferings are less than natural sufferings, and extend over a +very small number of victims. + +_But the question does not lie there._ The point is not whether the +suffering of animals be a large or small quantity in nature from an +absolute standpoint; the question is a higher one: we must ask ourselves if +the fact of inflicting pain is compatible with human morality. + +Tolstoi says somewhere that the sciences are nothing, that art is nothing, +that the true science is that of good and evil, of justice and injustice. +Everything sinks into insignificance in presence of this great duty, or +rather life has no other object. We should be entirely engrossed in doing +good; justice should be our sole preoccupation. + +If, then, from an absolute point of view the suffering of frogs and rabbits +does not count, it counts a lot from the point of view of human morality. +If a bad child should martyrise a toad, it is not the toad which would +interest me: poor creature of diffused consciousness, ignorant even of its +own pain, such a tiny pain, too, in comparison with the immense pains which +the beings of this great universe are suffering at this moment! No; the +toad would scarcely exist for me. The child would interest me greatly; and +all my pity would be turned upon that cruel child. My efforts would tend +much less towards preventing the toad from suffering than towards +preventing that human being from becoming a barbarian. + +If the anti-vivisectionists were true moralists and not fanatics they would +say: "To provoke suffering to produce disease, to inflict tortures, is an +execrable moral lesson. Whilst the first duty of man is to be good, you +instruct young men to be wicked. The doctor, who ought to be compassionate +for human suffering, should not serve his apprenticeship in that noble +profession by showing himself devoid of pity for the suffering of innocent +victims. A civilisation which allows itself to inflict death and torture on +living beings can be only a barbarous civilisation." + +I recognise the force of that argument. And whilst not a single one of the +preceding assertions of the anti-vivisectionists had succeeded in moving +me, I confess that this objection of human morality is a most powerful one. +I am nevertheless going to try to show that it is not admissible. + +And first of all, because there is in this world much suffering, human +suffering, which it is more important to allay than that of the victims of +vivisection. If our sole care were that of morality, what battles would we +not have to fight! There are thousands of people in India who die of +hunger; and throughout Asia whole populations perish of disease which a +little hygiene could prevent. The hunger-evil is rife in Russia; most of +the peasants in Sicily also never know what it is to satisfy their hunger. +The misery of children is lamentable everywhere: in our large cities, +Paris, Berlin, London, it is not exceptional, alas! to come across people +dying of hunger. The terribly high rate of mortality among children less +than a year old is due to hunger and to hunger alone. In Europe two million +children, under one year of age, die every year solely because their +parents are plunged in misery, because the mother, instead of nursing her +child, is forced to work, to earn her living at manual labour, which dries +up her milk. _These two million children who die of hunger are the disgrace +of our civilisation._ And yet we continue to live in luxury, we look on +calmly and indifferently at the agony of our human brothers, an agony which +we could easily alleviate. For my part, willingly shall I allow myself to +be melted with pity at the sight of tuberculous rabbits when I see those +persons who champion these same rabbits, develop within themselves some +pity for human suffering, a pity grown so deep, so powerful, that they +devote their entire fortune towards rescuing their brethren from death +through hunger. + +There is not only famine and want. There are many other social scourges; +and these scourges are much more serious than vivisection can ever become. +There is alcoholism, prostitution, war. And I have no need to say that +alcoholism is an evil, that prostitution is an evil, that war is an evil. +When human morality has been developed to such a pitch that man will no +longer be able to look on these great social miseries without horror, it +will be time enough perhaps to ask if it be permissible to seek for truth +at the expense of a little animal suffering. But until then I have the +right to stigmatise as hypocrisy all that immense pity which certain people +profess for dogs, side by side with their immense heedlessness, which they +do not fear to display, towards the fate of so many unfortunate human +beings. + +If anti-vivisectionists were animated by a great desire for morality, they +would endeavour to reform our social condition, which is abominable and +full of horrors; they would strive to impart into youth other notions than +that of smug satisfaction with the present social conditions. As long as we +have not faced the profound evils which gnaw at the root of our social +system, as long as we take a delight in the egotistical satisfaction of our +capitalist and martial society, it is not permissible, if we would not be +accused of scandalous hypocrisy, to affect pretensions to morality. + +Even from the very exclusive and rather paltry point of view of animals' +rights, are there not among anti-vivisectionists those of social position +who make no scruple in amusing themselves by fishing and hunting? In this +case they kill, they martyrise, not to conquer new truths, but for their +amusement and recreation. + +The hunter who fires at a hare sends after the wounded animal a savage dog, +trained to fierceness for this pursuit, and he looks on at the chase with +delight. The angler who has hooked a fish feels a pleasurable emotion when +he holds in the palm of his hand the struggling, writhing being. Elegant +sportsmen aim at pigeons to give proofs of their dexterity. A large number +of victims do not die on the spot, but, with wounded wing, or chest +pierced with lead, creep away to die in agony in the neighbouring woods. +Quite a large gathering of fashionable young women and distinguished young +men follow on horseback the tortures of a wretched stag pursued by a +furious pack of hounds. And, finally, the entire population of a large city +(Seville or Madrid, San Sebastian or Valencia), men and women, old and +young, go crazy with delight at the hideous spectacle of a noble bull +disembowelling horses, tormented by the picadors, and finally succumbing, +exhausted, done to death by his cowardly enemies. There are sights for you! +there are amusements for you if you like, which reflect scant honour on +human ethics; and well do I understand generous-hearted men and women +forming societies to combat war, alcoholism, prostitution, distributing +their wealth among the starving populations, also turning their energies +against hunting, angling, pigeon-shooting, and bullfights. It is a noble +programme of life which they have drawn up for themselves, and such people +merit our highest admiration. + +Societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals are admirable and +irreproachable when they defend animals against human savagery: for +example, when they prevent carters from lashing into ribbons the skin of +the miserable horses under their charge; or when they put down the practice +of harnessing a horse to a cart too heavily loaded; or when they interdict +cock-fighting and bull-baiting. I will even point out to these same +societies, so enamoured of animals' rights, a new kind of protection of +quite a special nature. + +There exist a number of species of animals which, hunted and hemmed in by +man, are on the point of extinction. How many, alas! have for ever +disappeared; and no human power will ever be able to bring back to life an +animal species once extinct. + +It is a great pity; for these charming forms, the joy of the eyes, provided +with curious and delicate instincts, have been annihilated for ever. I will +give some examples to show to what an extent it is necessary for man to +protect the animal against man himself. Man has the taste for devastation; +and when he is excited, either by the fury of the hunt or the bait of gain, +he does not hesitate to make many victims without asking himself if these +furious ravages will not find their consummation in the destruction of an +entire race of animals. + +Already in the Polar regions, some fine species of animals have +disappeared. The great auk (extinct since 1844) exists no longer. One +species of walrus has also disappeared. + +The seal is on the road to extinction; fishermen have indulged in such +orgies of destruction that international measures have had to be taken to +prevent the total destruction of the species. And indeed be it not +forgotten that if the Governments of England and of the United States have +made regulations restricting the massacre of seals, it is not by any means +in order to stem the tide of destruction of an animal species interesting +in itself, but solely because such destruction would put an end to a source +of very considerable commercial profit. + +A hundred years ago, whales were so abundant that 30,000 fishermen earned +their living by whale-hunting. Now, our means of warfare against the +cetacea have become so effective that whales can no longer defend +themselves, and their number is decreasing every day to such an extent that +we can almost foretell the moment when the whale will have ceased to exist. + +In America, vast regions were overrun by immense herds of bisons. They have +been massacred with such mad and blind ardour that if the Government had +not finally taken some tardy and insufficient measures of precaution, the +bison would be extinct too. + +Aurochs, elks, chamois, bears have almost disappeared, whereas a century +ago they were widely diffused in Europe. In proportion as man takes +possession of the earth to cultivate it, he kills off every wild species +and replaces them by domestic species where race loses its value. If this +goes on, a time will come, unfortunately, when all-powerful man, having +given himself up to the thoughtless destruction of everything not of +immediate use to him, will have wiped off the face of the earth all save +domestic animals. There will be hens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and +guinea-fowls, sheep, oxen, donkeys, horses, cows. Perhaps for the pleasure +of hunting, a few deer and a few hares will be preserved; but all wild +species which cannot be reproduced in captivity will have disappeared, will +no longer be there to delight our gaze. In France, the small birds are +destroyed in rank fury, and every measure taken to protect them is +inefficacious, thanks to the rage for destruction among the inhabitants. +Asia and Africa once upon a time--when almost unknown and unexplored by +Europeans--sheltered many a noble animal species to-day well-nigh extinct, +and which, if strict measures of precaution be not speedily taken, will +soon have disappeared for ever. The large monkeys, the ostrich, the +giraffe, and especially the elephant, shun the haunts of man, for man is +their ruthless enemy. It looks as though a hundred years hence, not one +will be left. + +It is not without sadness we think of that future civilisation, a brilliant +one perhaps from several points of view, but monotonous and tame, as it +will no longer possess this marvellous variety of different animal species +which is as one of the smiles of nature. A pitiable uniformity will replace +the varied forms which natural selection has taken thousands of years to +bring forth; and then perhaps some tardy poet, in contemplation before the +vast sheepfolds and poultry farms, where man will cultivate the species of +use to him, will regret those far-off days when birds of all kinds sang in +the forests, blending their gambols with those of the graceful animals +which human civilisation will have annihilated. + +There, I fancy, is a fertile subject for meditation, and interesting +initiative for all those who have at heart the rights of animals, and, if I +may express myself thus, the future of animality. + +But the sight of a vivisection, the preparation of a laboratory experiment +cannot be compared with the stupid and mischievous pleasures of angling and +hunting. It is not a question of amusing oneself, of killing time, of +diversion, of finding in the sight of blood or pain a recreation for +boredom. It is quite another motive which animates the _savant_. He has +ever before his mind the thought that his efforts are going to bring a +little alleviation to the great sum of human suffering. If he inoculates a +rabbit with tuberculosis, he cannot help thinking of all the wretched +consumptives who are at that moment in the throes of death. He knows well +that each time he discovers even only a particle of truth, that little bit +of new truth is going to bring in its train some consequence which will +bear fruit in the healing of suffering mankind. + +It is with no light-heartedness that the physiologist causes the blood to +flow, inoculates disease, injects poisons. I know the thought which +animates my friends and my colleagues when they make their experiments: it +is never without the most profound pity that we dare to take a healthy, +gay, confiding animal, and give him chloroform, or inject a poison into +him. This respect for pain, far from decreasing with age, on the contrary +goes on increasing. Just as the doctor as he grows older becomes more and +more sensitive to the sight of human suffering, so the physiologist who has +performed many experiments understands more and more thoroughly the +seriousness of pain. He feels all the weight of it: he has a greater +responsibility. His morality has become higher and higher, his sensibility +has increased. Often he repeats to himself this line of Virgil's:-- + + "_Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco._" + + (Knowing misfortune, I teach the succour of the wretched.) + +It would, therefore, be altogether unjust to reproach the experimenter with +barbarism or inhumanity; for more than any one else does he possess the +sentiment of the immense misfortunes of humanity, and if he resigns himself +to experimentation, it is because he sees behind his experiment an +alleviation of the sufferings of both man and beast. + +It is related that, in one of the great battles of the last century, a +general, in order to protect the retreat of his army, was obliged to send a +squadron of cavalry to make a hopeless charge upon the enemy's infantry. +This meant sending those brave fellows to certain death. Yet he did not +hesitate; and with tears in his eyes he gave the order to charge, +convinced, as every general should be, that it is sometimes necessary to +sacrifice a few human lives for the salvation of the army, for the +salvation of the country. + +Well, then! We consider ourselves as soldiers waging battle against the +blind, malefic forces of nature. On certain days, so as to triumph over +disease and ignorance, we must sacrifice a few victims. Then we do not +hesitate, and it is our duty not to hesitate. + +It even seems to me that those men who pass their lives in nauseous rooms, +amidst poison and virus, receiving no other recompense for long labours +than the satisfaction of duty accomplished, merit the esteem and respect of +every one. They seek neither wealth nor honours. It is not in the +laboratories of physiology that a man grows rich. It is not in the +laboratories of physiology that man wins high social positions. But what +matter! He has used his life to alleviate the sufferings of others. He has +had ever before him another ideal than that of the anti-vivisectionists, +the ideal of human suffering, which is much more to be respected than +animal suffering in spite of all empty words and phrases. + +Therefore, when we speak of vivisection or of experimentation before young +men, we must not be taxed with immorality; because work, the search for +truth, pity for the misfortunes of man, pity also for the unfortunate +animals--these I think are subjects which should ennoble the minds of the +young men who listen to us. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ARE LAWS REGULATING VIVISECTION NECESSARY? + + +We will now briefly consider an interesting and highly practical side of +the question. In certain countries, as in England, there are laws +regulating vivisection. In other countries, as in France, Germany, and +Italy, there is nothing analogous; consequently public opinion on this +point is uncertain. + +In the beginning of this book, I acknowledged that, in spite of the +exaggeration of their complaints, anti-vivisectionists had rendered real +service to general morality by calling attention to the excesses committed +by a few vivisectionists in the past. No one recognises this benefit more +than I, and I willingly grant that their preaching has, on the whole, had a +happy result. Is it however, expedient to go further, and to prohibit or +simply to regulate vivisection? + +For reasons given above, it seems to me that prohibition would be absurd +and injurious, as well in the land of Harvey and Hunter as in the lands of +Bernard and Pasteur, of Galvani and Spallanzani, of Johannes Mueller and +Helmholtz. Prohibition would mean closing the book of science, stemming all +progress, condemning humanity eternally to the same miseries, to writhe, +powerless, in the same old track. Fortunately, no one thinks seriously of +suppressing physiological experimentation; and, therefore, we have no need +to dwell on this point. + +But regulation is quite a different thing from prohibition. Now, I showed +that certain practices should be condemned. Should they, however, be +condemned by law? Why should the law be substituted for the exigencies of +science? Here is a physiologist, fully conscious of the magnitude of his +task, to whom the government or a university has confided the direction of +a laboratory, who finds himself face to face with a problem needing to be +solved. It is impossible to limit his efforts and to lay down principles +from which he could not turn aside. Just as he is referred to for the +purchase of his instruments and the nomination of his staff, so must he be +left full latitude in the arrangement of his experiments. Nothing is so +pernicious in matters of science as official regulation; it takes away all +initiative, and does not allow the genius of the inventor to have full +play. + +As a matter of fact, even in England, the only country where up to the +present the conditions of vivisection have been regulated by law, no one +has ventured to confine the initiative of the experimenter within narrow +regulations. And it is fortunate that no one has ventured to define the +limits of experimental investigation, for most excellent work is due to +contemporary English Physiologists--Schaefer, Horsley, Sherrington, Langley, +Bayliss, Starling, Stirling, etc. They have been able to pursue their +researches freely, to the very great advantage of our science. + +One should not, then, think of prohibiting such or such a proceeding in +vivisection. It may even be dangerous to absolutely prohibit vivisections +without anaesthesia. I make no mystery of my opinion on this point, since I +have distinctly declared further back that no sensitive animal should ever +be operated upon. I regard as a moral error all vivisection made on an +animal capable of suffering. But I would leave the physiologist to be the +judge in the matter. I do not believe the law should take his place; for +perhaps cases will occur where anaesthesia is impossible, and he cannot be +placed under the hard alternative of not making an experiment which his +conscience as a _savant_ judges to be useful, or of disobeying the law. + +Moreover, how are the many possible conditions of an experiment to be +precisely laid down? Is the law to indicate the kind of anaesthetic to be +used, and the degree of anaesthesia to be attained? Is it to prohibit all +experiments on toxic actions? Many insoluble difficulties would be +encountered, the sole result of which would be to paralyse the _savant_ in +his researches or to cause him to break the laws of his country. + +And yet I recognise that regulation is indispensable, but it ought not to +bear on the nature of the experiment; it should deal solely with the +person experimenting. + +I believe the right of practising vivisection should not be accorded to +every citizen, to every medical student; it should not be permissible for +any chance person to take a dog, to fasten him down on the operating table, +and to experiment on the brain, the glands, the muscles of that unfortunate +animal, for that chance person is, in all probability, a clumsy and +ignorant man. Vivisection may not be undertaken in a light-hearted fashion. +After all, science would lose nothing if such an experiment were not made, +and I see no advantage in encouraging attempts of this sort which are +condemned beforehand to be fruitless. + +But in a laboratory of physiology, under the direction of the professor and +his assistants, under their moral responsibility, vivisection should not be +prohibited; the number of vivisections should not be limited, and no +restrictions ought to be imposed. + +As I have no intention of formulating or drawing up regulations or enacting +laws, I shall not indicate the penalties to which those who violate the +law should be liable. I shall content myself with enunciating this double +principle: entire liberty in vivisection for professors of physiology and +their assistants; prohibition of vivisection for all others. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +VIVISECTION AND THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE + + +Let us now leave the opinions of anti-vivisectionists, and carry the +problem on to higher ground. Let us see what are the rights of man in +Nature, and what is the purpose of human life. + +Amidst all the unsettled and contradictory theories accumulated by +philosophers, thinkers and founders of religion, there remains scarcely any +fixed and immutable theory save that of one dominating principle: The +respect and love of our brothers in humanity. All else is contestable and +contested. Though we are unable to demonstrate it formally, there is one +universal moral law (the great Categorical Imperative of Kant) which +commands us to be just and beneficent to our fellow-creatures. All the most +subtle sophisms will never be able to persuade me that I ought not, above +all things, to feel solicitude for the lives and happiness of men. + +I willingly admit that beside man there is the animal, _our inferior +brother_ as it has been ingeniously called, so that we have also our duties +towards these inferior brothers. But _this must never be to the detriment +of our real brothers_. It seems to me insane to consider the life of a cat +of more account than that of a man; the pain of a dog than that of a child. +All the more so because living matter, if I may use that expression, +possesses varying degrees of perfection; from the sea-weed up to man there +are successive stages of living forms which constitute an uninterrupted +chain ending in its final phase, which is man. + +Man, by his power of thought, and consequently of suffering, by the +conception which he is able to make of the non-self, by his faculties of +abstraction and the notion of good and evil, is vastly superior to every +other living being. So that, for respecting, defending and loving men, I +have not only the reason that man is my brother, but also that this brother +is superior to every other living thing. + +That is why a moral code must be essentially human, having for its highest +object the happiness of other men. Every other code of morals, having in +view a different purpose supporting itself on metaphysical lucubrations or +haunted by puerile anxieties, such as the adoration of beasts, appears to +me to bear the stamp of fetishism. An unknown power has caused us to be +born; we are entirely ignorant of our destinies, we know not why we were +born, why we die, why, following in the wake of countless generations, we +transmit the vital spark to countless succeeding generations. We know +nothing of all that; but it matters little from the point of view of our +duty. Duty is independent of all theory. No mere religion is necessary to +constitute a moral code. + +_Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto_, or rather our moral code, will +be the religion of humanity. It does not seem to me possible to conceive of +any other. + +And when we say humanity, we take that word in its largest acceptation. It +is not a question of compatriots, nor of Europeans, nor even of humanity of +to-day. It is also a question of the humanity of the future. We have our +duties towards the man of to-day; but we have also our duties towards the +man who will live in the centuries to come. We should prepare the way for a +happier and better humanity. Our task is not limited to the present hour; +it extends to all those human beings who will come after us. Inasmuch as we +of to-day, at every moment of our lives, benefit from the accumulated +services of our ancestors, so the men to come will profit by the benefits +which we are endeavouring to prepare for them. + +Assuredly, Humanity will not be eternal, and Science seems to prove that a +time will come when the sun's heat will be insufficient to develop life on +the surface of our puny planet. A time will come when the earth will have +cooled down and become like our pale satellite, the moon, a dead star, +where the debris of extinct multitudinous civilisations will disappear +under the ice. But what matter! We have not to trouble ourselves about +those far-off times. We have to think of the man of the coming centuries, +and, at the same time, it goes without saying, of the man of to-day. + +To lessen their misery, to make their existence less lamentable, to develop +within them the sentiments of justice and brotherhood, to secure their +moral welfare and their material welfare, that is our strict and sole duty. +I recognise no other. + +Now, there is but one way open to attain this noble goal: Science. We are +plunged in an ocean of gloom. All is dark, unknown, disturbing. We have not +yet understood anything of the blind forces surrounding us on all sides. We +are but feeble beings cast into the midst of sovereign powers which +overwhelm and bear us down. Now, to avoid being completely and definitely +crushed out of existence, it is necessary to penetrate into the nature of +these forces. Alas! we shall never penetrate into them, for it is madness +to think that a particle of the whole can ever fully cognise the whole; but +we may at least demonstrate some facts, fathom some phenomena, perhaps +trace a few of the features of certain laws. That is enough to make us +instantly the masters of matter and not its slaves. + +Every new truth at once brings about an amelioration in human conditions. +It may be said that our _happiness is made up of truth_. Let us suppose +what is improbable, that is to say, that we have come to know all the laws +of Nature, should we not immediately become all-powerful? Should we not be +the sovereign masters of disease and pain, perhaps of old age and death? + +Such, indeed, appears to be the conviction of the human societies which +assign a preponderating role to Science. They have understood that there is +no better future in store for the human being than that which Science will +bring about for him. + +To be able to appreciate the extent to which the man of to-day is +materially and morally happier than the man of past ages, we have only to +compare the present state of our civilisation with the state of past +civilisations. We may say that an English labourer of to-day has a much +easier existence than had an Italian prince of the fourteenth century. +Everywhere, the progress achieved by Science has entered into the life of +each individual. We find it in the book we read, in the electricity which +gives us light, in the train or the steamer which carries us to the +uttermost corners of the earth in little time and at little cost. It is the +same thing also with medicaments, which are certainly able to lessen the +pain of disease. + +Moral progress has kept pace with material progress. At the same time that +matter has been overcome, our customs have become gentler; individual +liberty is a sacred thing; each citizen takes part in the decisions of his +government; there is no longer either slavery or torture or tyranny of +conscience. In a word, the man of to-day is happier and more powerful than +the man of bygone days. + +This happiness has not been acquired through any providential "miracles." +No God came down from His Heaven to alleviate human misfortunes. It is man, +and man alone, who, by his genius and his labours, has been able to make +himself master of the forces which, even yesterday, held him in bondage. +And we cannot be too grateful to our fathers for their immense and fruitful +labours, by which they succeeded in constructing the society in the midst +of which we live. It is still wretched enough, this society of ours, +afflicted with crimes and horrors, the infamy of which we understand full +well; but however wretched it may be, it is a thousand times less wretched +than was society of yore. + +Therefore, this formal conclusion may at once be deduced; we must do for +our descendants what our fathers did for us. We would be without excuse if +we rested content to benefit from the works of our predecessors without +ourselves also creating something, without leaving, by means of our +personal labours, a better lot to our descendants. The man who has not +understood this supreme duty is truly unworthy of being a man. + +Verily, every individual, when he has arrived at the end of his life, +should examine his conscience and ask himself if in the humble sphere of +his action, he has not, even he also, contributed a stone to the human +edifice, if he has not done his share in promoting and increasing the +forces of humanity. + +Since matters stand thus, since the development of Science is the +fundamental condition of the happiness of man, we must resolutely put +Science at the basis of every civilisation. Alas! it has not been so up to +the present; and if we study the development of human societies, we see +that they are above all things attracted to war. Science has had only the +leavings. But the time has come when man should no longer believe that the +principle of morality is man's struggle against man. That was the history +of bye-gone times. The history of to-day, and especially the history of +to-morrow, is the struggle of man against matter, the subjection of natural +forces to our intelligence. And there is no other way to subjugate these +forces than by learning to know them. + +Then Science will be put in the foreground. And without making any +classification which distinguishes between the sciences, which are all +useful, beautiful, and noble, for all contain a portion of truth, we shall +be permitted to say that the Science of life is one of the most useful, the +most noble, and the most beautiful. + +Now, the Science of life is Physiology, taking physiology in its widest +sense, that is to say, the study of normal beings and of diseased beings. +It is proved by innumerable facts, facts which only bad faith and ignorance +can call into question, that our physiological knowledge is due, in a very +large measure, to experimentation. If in thought we suppressed the +scientific results which experimentation has conquered, we should have but +an inferior science, within the reach of the Brahmans may be, but unworthy +of our present scientific standing. We should know nothing of the +circulation of the blood, nor the function of the blood corpuscles, nor the +formation of sugar, nor the innervation of the glands, nor the +contagiousness of disease, nor the power of poisons; we should be reduced +to the notions of Hippocrates, we should be less advanced than Galileo, the +first ingenious experimenter who indicated, less by his writings than by +his experiments, that the basis of physiology, and consequently of the +whole of pathology, is experimentation on animals. + +Those most sincere persons who wish to banish experimentation from Science +are consequently, I do not fear to say it, standing in the position of +direct contradiction to true morality. To refuse man the right to study +living nature, is as though we declared that living nature ought not to be +known. Alas! anti-vivisectionists will not listen. In vain do we tell them +that we, physiologists, preserve man from disease; that we have alleviated +the ills of our human brothers. They stop up their ears; they shut their +eyes; they have no pity for the sufferings of human beings. It seems as +though the tears of their brethren were profoundly indifferent to them. Is +this a high morality? Is this a realisation of their duty as men? They +cover with opprobrium the names of Harvey and Jenner, Bernard and Pasteur, +Spallanzani and Helmholtz. What base ingratitude! It is these great men who +have turned aside many excruciating sufferings from humanity; it is these +grand men who have bestowed a better lot on so many human beings. When, +therefore, they dare to calumniate the masters who have scattered over us +so much beneficence, anti-vivisectionists seem to me to be not only the +most ungrateful but even the cruellest of men. + +Fortunately the conquering march of Science will not be hindered. We shall +never return to those sinister times when our great Vesalius had to forfeit +his life for having dared to dissect a human corpse. We shall continue to +make Science advance towards its great aim, the good of man. + +And this is the moment which has been chosen for striving to arrest the +march of Science: when epidemic disease, such as the plague and cholera, is +checked; tuberculosis half-conquered; diptheria rendered inoffensive; +operations become almost harmless; cancer on the eve of being understood +and subjugated! And are we to stop there? Are we not to seek to fathom the +many problems still waiting to be solved, and on which depend the lives of +so many human beings, and so much human happiness? Do you believe that +Science has come to an end? Certainly we already know a great deal; but +what we know is as nothing compared to what we do not know. + +An immense domain of unknown truths lies open to our activity. And we are +able to forsee what inexpressible benefits these new truths will scatter +over suffering humanity. Consequently, everyone, every man enamoured of +goodness and justice, should be filled with respect for Science, and set +all his hopes on her. + +At the same time, however great may be my adoration for Science, it must +not be at the expense of human personalities, or, let us say it distinctly, +at the expense of animal personalities, which although uncertain and +indistinct, still merit a share, and a large share, of justice and of pity. + +As for human personalities, without the slightest doubt, we have not the +right to sacrifice an innocent creature for Science. Every human being +ought to be treated with respect, and we have not the right to kill and +martyrise a human being even if his death and his martyrdom might serve the +cause of Science. + +As for animal personalities, the question becomes much more doubtful. For +inferior beings with indistinct consciousness, and, without a doubt +powerless to perceive pain, no scruple should hold us back. But if it +concerns beings nearer to ourselves, such as monkeys, cats, dogs, horses, +all certainly capable of feeling pain, we must be chary of inflicting pain, +and experiment only after having totally abolished in them all sensation of +pain. But under penalty of falling into fetishism, we must not fear to use +the life of these beings in order to prolong the life of man. Every time we +propose to make an experiment, it is as though we put this question to +ourselves: is this dog worth more than a man? or than a hundred men? or +than the whole of humanity to come? Thus put, the problem bears only one +solution: Avoid giving pain to the animal on condition that it is not at +the cost of innumerable human pains. Moreover, it is the same here as in +every question we may wish to investigate: Each of the two adversaries set +out from a just principle, incontestably just. But each one pushes the just +principle so far that he ends by transforming it into a colossal absurdity. + +In the present case, the anti-vivisectionists say: pain is an evil, even +the obscure pain of the lowest animal is an evil. Now, we should do no +evil; therefore we should not at any price inflict any pain whatsoever, +however light it may be, on even the lowest animal. That is their +syllogism. It cannot be replied to, for it is perfectly correct. + +We on our side say: The suffering of man is a sacred thing. Science casts +aside suffering from man. Therefore we ought to sacrifice inferior beings +to the cause of Science, that is to say to the happiness of man. There +again lies an irreproachable syllogism. + +But these two syllogisms, if driven up to their ultimate conclusions, would +lead to nonsense on the one hand and cruelty on the other. If we were to +listen only to the friends of animals, we should not have the right to +bleed a horse in order to save the lives of 400 children; and this +contention would be both foolish and cruel. + +If we were to listen only to the friends of man, we should have the right, +simply as dictated by our might and fancy, to cause suffering to dogs, +cats, monkeys, all innocent and sensitive animals, under pretext that these +tortures are capable of alleviating human pain. That also would be folly +and cruelty. + +Fortunately, wisdom avoids both extremes; it fears the brutality of hard +and fast syllogisms, which are absurd even by their very severity. Yes, +there are the rights of man; yes, there are the rights of animals; and all +our efforts should consist in holding an even balance between these two +sometimes antagonistic rights. Do not let us push our reasonings to their +logical but absurd extremes. Pre-occupation for the welfare of future +humanity and of Science does not authorise us to be wicked and unjust +towards the men of to-day, even towards one single man. So that, +notwithstanding my worship of Science, I would not sacrifice human lives to +her. And, notwithstanding all my respect for animal pain, I would look upon +the man as supremely ridiculous, even guilty, who would not innoculate a +microbe into a rabbit to achieve a great discovery for humanity. Wisdom, +therefore, consists precisely in this: to know where to stop in pushing a +reasoning to extremes. This is what physiologists have sought and are +seeking to do. + +In any case, and as a last conclusion, Science ought not to be sacrificed. +Now, the death-knell of science will have sounded when _savants_ are +prevented from pursuing their investigations on living beings. We who, in +full confidence, hope for a happier and better humanity, will never resign +ourselves to closing our laboratories, to burning our books. On the +contrary, we are determined, every one of us, to continue our hard labours +for the great good of the men of to-day and of the generations to come. + +And when we speak of Science, we do not mean only the material benefits she +scatters abroad; we think also of her power as a moral force. Material and +moral conquests walk hand in hand. Science is the basis of the moral law. +The universal consciousness of humanity grows greater by the acquisition of +new truths. Each individual, by the very fact that he loves truth, has come +to understand the moral ideal which should be ever before his eyes. + +And then, in a just measure, full of pity for all suffering, but placing +the suffering of man at a higher price than the suffering of the animal, we +shall strive to make the respect of animal suffering accord with the search +for the splendid and indispensable and divine TRUTH. + + + + +POST SCRIPTUM + + +In the various works, notices, discourses, etc., which have been published +upon Vivisection, generally against Vivisection, I find various erroneous +assertions which it is important should be pointed out. I will do so +briefly. + +There is, however, one assertion which appears fairly just to me. This is +that in treatises on physiology, sufficient mention is not made of +Vivisection, of its limits and of its abuses. At the beginning of a +treatise on physiology, the author should distinctly declare there is +always cruelty in vivisection conducted without chloroform or chloralose; +the author should indicate that these anaesthetics ought to be administered +under such or such conditions. Before initiating medical students into the +study of life, it is also well to teach them to have respect for animal +suffering. I would that it might be thoroughly understood that it is a +matter of absolute necessity to operate upon the animal; and that when the +physiologist resigns himself to this necessity he ought to perform the +operation with sufficient humanity to prevent the animal from suffering. I +willingly recognise that the absence of this first moral precept is a great +gap in most treatises on physiology. + +This, however, is about all I can concede to anti-vivisectionists; for +truly they indulge in such queer, extraordinary assertions that we are +completely disconcerted. Some of these fanatics pretend, for example, that +physiologists should practise vivisection upon themselves. To torture a dog +is as criminal as to torture a child, according to them; and animal +suffering is as much to be respected as human suffering! Truly such a +paradox cannot be taken seriously; if it were admitted, evidently the +question is settled. But it cannot be admitted, and the whole of our +argument rests upon this principle, which appears quite evident, that +living beings occupy different positions in the hierarchy of nature. + +Let us take a besieged city reduced to famine: will anyone pretend that the +soldiers must be sacrificed before the horses, the mules, etc. Yet the case +is exactly the same. It is in order to avoid the death of human beings +that mice and guinea-pigs are put to death. + +To deny the difference in rank of living beings is to deny evidence. A frog +is a nobler animal than a sea-urchin; a dog is a nobler animal than a frog; +for there are degrees in the intelligence, and consequently, in the +capacity to suffer, and in the _quality_ of suffering among the four animal +groups: the sea-urchin, the frog, the dog, and man. + +Anti-vivisectionists do not admit reflex movements (which, moreover, they +do not understand); and they bewail the dogs that Goltz and Ewald subjected +to cerebral mutilations which took away all intellectual spontaneity and +prevented them from eating spontaneously. But in those very dogs, precisely +because there is no spontaneity, so there is no longer any consciousness of +pain. They are, therefore, of all the beings in creation those which +deserve the least commiseration; for they are protected against pain by +that very ablation of the brain, the seat of pain. + +We are told that it is through cowardice, through the fear of disease, that +vivisection is practised. But fear of disease is not cowardice. I am +neither poltroon nor coward, but I would be very sorry to be attacked by +tuberculosis or cancer. I do not blush to confess that it would be very +disagreeable for me to be hanged, though hanging is much less painful than +tuberculosis or cancer. If it were necessary to have a hanged victim, I +would much prefer that a rabbit were taken in preference to myself; and I +would certainly not put my own neck in the cord to save a dog from torture. + +The state of mind of anti-vivisectionists appears to me rather singular, +since they are not at all afraid of disease as far as man is concerned, but +they have great fear of it for animals. If pain is but an empty word, +according to the celebrated phrase of Zeno, why not apply that fine maxim +to the animal? + +Sir James Thornton (_The Principal Claims on behalf of Vivisection_, +London, 1907), has endeavoured to compile a list of the contradictions to +be found in the treatises of physiology. He could have added considerably +to the length of this chapter, for the contradictions are innumerable; +which only proves, not that vivisection is useless, but that it is +difficult. What would chemists say if it were maintained that chemical +analysis was absurd because of the contradictions between chemists? They +would, and rightly so, continue to make analyses; for they know that +analysis is a necessary, though an imperfect, instrument. In the same +manner, we shall continue to practise vivisection, though we know right +well that vivisection is an imperfect, though a necessary, instrument. + +In the course of a recent debate on vivisection, a voice was heard to call +out that Lister was a brute. That "crowns" everything, and one would think +that nothing more inept could be imagined. + +Alas! something more inept still has been said, and I hand over this +prodigious and audacious assertion to the judgment of every man of heart +and common sense. It refers to bacteriology. The author, after having said +that microbes are not the cause of disease, takes refuge behind the opinion +of Lawson Tait (quoted by Mona Caird, _The Inquisition of Science_, p. +20). + +"Such experiments never have succeeded, never can: and they have, as in the +cases of Koch, Pasteur, and Lister, not only hindered true progress, but +they have covered our profession with ridicule." + +That is something which may well confound us, is it not? and I believe +those great benefactors of humanity, Koch, Pasteur and Lister, may indeed +murmur: "Forgive them; for they know not what they say." + +To sum up: the objections of anti-vivisectionists are irrefutable if we +admit, (1) that man has not the right to kill an animal either in +self-defence or for nourishment; (2) that the suffering of an animal is as +worthy of respect as the suffering of a man; and (3) that the misery of one +individual is as sacred as the misery of a thousand individuals. No logical +reply can be made to these three assertions, which, according to my +reasoning, constitute an offence against the most elementary common sense. +But I doubt very much if we shall ever arrive at demonstrating that it is +better to allow one hundred children to die from diphtheria rather than +draw a little blood from a horse; or that we should practise vivisection +on man so as to alleviate the diseases of dogs. + +Concerning the polemics of anti-vivisectionists as to the uselessness of +physiology, and the contradictions of physiologists, they are nothing but a +tissue of error and ignorance. + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +We give herewith a table showing the absolute and relative mortality due to +diphtheria in Paris from 1872 to 1905, out of a population of 2,500,000 +inhabitants:-- + + ABSOLUTE. PER 100,000 INHABITANTS. + + 1872 1135 61 + 1873 1164 62 + 1874 1008 52 + 1875 1328 68 + 1876 1572 79 + 1877 2393 117 + 1878 1995 95 + 1879 1783 83 + 1880 2048 94 + 1881 2211 99 + 1882 2244 100 + 1883 1781 79 + 1884 1928 86 + 1885 1655 74 + 1886 1512 67 + 1887 1585 70 + 1888 1729 74 + 1889 1706 72 + 1890 1668 70 + 1891 1361 56 + 1892 1403 58 + 1893 1266 52 + 1894 1009 41 + 1895 435 17 + 1896 444 17 + 1897 298 12 + 1898 259 10 + 1899 339 13 + 1900 294 11 + 1901 736 28 + 1902 709 26 + 1903 399 15 + 1904 260 10 + 1905 204 7 + +Let us divide this mortality due to diphtheria into three groups (in Paris +per 100,000 inhabitants):-- + + A. Before the discovery of serotherapy, from 1872 to + 1888. + + B. During the period of experimentation with + serotherapy, from 1889 to 1894. + + C. After the generalisation of serotherapy, from 1895 + to 1905. + +We have then the following averages:-- + + ABSOLUTE. PER 100,000 + INHABITANTS. + + Before serotherapy 1657 80 + Intermediary period 1402 58 + After serotherapy 398 15 + +And should these figures not seem sufficiently eloquent, let us set them +forth in another form:-- + + ABSOLUTE MORTALITY. + + Before the discovery of serotherapy, 1888 1729 + 1st year of serotherapy, 1889 1706 + 2nd " " 1890 1668 + 3rd " " 1891 1361 + 4th " " 1892 1463 + 5th " " 1893 1266 + 6th " " 1894 1009 + +At this moment the practice of serotherapy, thanks to Roux, became general +in Paris. + + 1st year, 1895--435. + 2nd " 1896--444. + +During the next six years there were still hesitations and uncertainties as +to the best method to be employed. + +The mortality during these six years, 1897-1902--439. + +Then the practice was definitely established. + +The mortality for the three years, 1903-1905--288. + +These figures are so eloquent, so striking, so precise, that it is not +possible to misunderstand them. They cannot be ignored; and when once they +have been set forth, ignorance is no longer permissible, and it is for that +reason we have here given them. + +In Berlin and in Vienna, it is the same thing. From 1894 the mortality due +to diphtheria has diminished to the extent of 150 per cent. + + + + +APPENDIX B + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +Adams (C.). HUNTER AND THE STAG. _A reply to Prof. Owen._ (8vo, London, +1881.) + +Adler (H.). ZUR FRAGE DER V. (_Wien med. Woch._, 1879, 1161, 1211, 1241.) + +Anstie (F. E.) THE VIVISECTION CONTROVERSY. (_Practitioner_, 1874, 38 and +321.) + +Apinus (S. J.). DISS. EX JURE NATURAE: AN LICEAT BRUTORUM CORPORA MUTILARE +ET SPECIATIM OB ES RECHT SEY DASS MAN DEN HUNDEN DIE OHREN ABSCHNEIDE, +VARIIS OBSERVATIONIBUS AUCTA. (Altorphii Noricorum, 1722.) + +Basch ZUR V. FRAGE. (_Wien med. Blaetter_, 1879, 2, 73.) + +Beck (J. M.). THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF VIVISECTION. (_Medical News_, 1890, pp. +280-282.) + +Bedtnitz (A.). DIE V. GAUKLER. 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VIVISECTION SO CALLED, ITS ROLE IN THE SERVICE OF MAN AND +BEAST. (_Ind. Med. Gaz._, 1897, 91.) + +Heidenhain (R.). DIE V. IM DIENSTE DER HEILKUNDE. (8vo, Leipzig, 1879.) + +Hermann (L.). DIE V. FRAGE. (8vo, Leipzig, 1877.) + +Hodge. THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. (_Pop. Sc. Monthly_, 1896, 614-630, +771-786.) + +Horsley (V.). and Rutter (A.). THE MORALITY OF VIVISECTION. (_Nineteenth +Century_, 1892, pp. 804-817.) + +Hutton (R. H.). THE BIOLOGISTS ON VIVISECTION. (_Nineteenth Century_, 1882, +29-39, and _Contemp. Rev._, 1883, 510-516.) + +Jaeger (G.). V. UND HEILKUNST. (_Jaegers Monatsbl._, 1905, 137-141, 173-183, +197-203.) + +Keen (W. W.). OUR RECENT DEBTS TO VIVISECTION. (_Pop. Sc. Monthly_, 1889, +1-15 and _Harper's Mag._, 1893, pp. 28-139.) + +Keen (W. W.). MISSTATEMENTS OF THE ANTI-VIVISECTIONISTS AGAIN. (_Phil. Med. +Jour._, 1901, 204-206.) + +Kingsford (A.). THE USELESSNESS OF VIVISECTION. (_Nineteenth Century_, +1882, 171-183.) + +Kleffer (H.). LA VIVISECTION, SON UTILITE, SA MORALE. (GENEVE, GEORG, 12mo, +1883.) + +Lawson (H.). THE VIVISECTION CLAMOUR. (_Pop. Sc. Rev._, 1876, 398-405.) + +Leffingwell. VIVISECTION, A REPLY TO PROF. H. WOOD. (_Bost. Med. and Surg. +Journ._, 1899, 371.) + +Leneveu (G.). DE L'UTILITE DE LA VIVISECTION. (Diss, in., Paris, 1883.) + +Lund (P. W.). PHYSIOLOGISCHE RESULTATE DER V. NEUERER ZEIT (_trad. du +Danois_). (Kopenhagen, 1825.) + +Macphail (J. A.). VIVISECTION. (_Montreal Med. Journ._, 1890, 895-919.) + +Magnan. DE LA FOLIE DES ANTIVIVISECTIONNISTES. (_C. R. de la Soc. de Biol. +de Paris_, 1884, 101-104.) + +Marechal (Ph.). LA VIVISECTION. (_Medecin_, 1904, 35, and _Revue du Cien_, +13-15.) + +Maurel. LA VIVISECTION EST ELLE INDISPENSABLE. (_Ass. pour l'ac. des +sciences_, 1901, 294.) + +Merbach. UEBER DIE GESCHICHTE DER V. (_Jahresb. d. Ges. f. Nat. u. Heilk. +in Dresd._ 1878, 98-103.) + +Metzger (D.). LA VIVISECTION, LES DANGERS, ET LES CRIMES. (8vo, Paris, +1891.) + +Moore (W. J.). HARVEY AND VIVISECTION. (_Ind. Med. Gaz._, 1876, 230-233.) + +Moquin Tandon. RAPPORT SUR LES VIVISECTIONS. (_Bull. de l'ac. de Medecine +de Paris_, 1862, 948-960.) + +Nagel (R.). DER WISSENSCHAFTLICHE UNWERTH DER V IN ALLEN IHREN ARTEN. (8vo, +Berlin, 1881.) + +Novi (J.). SULLA V. (_Boll. d. sc. med. di Bologne_, 1893, 263, 421.) + +Paget (Stephen). EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS. (_Murray_). + +Renault (E.). LA SOC. PROTECTS. DES ANIMAUX ET LA VIVISECTION. (_Rec. de +Med. veterin._, 1862, 231-247.) + +Renooz (C). A PROPOS DE LA VIVISECTION. (_Medecin_, 1904, 178-179.) + +Richet (Ch.). MAN'S RIGHT OVER ANIMALS. (_Pop. Sc. Monthly_, 1884, xxv., +759-766.) + +Smith (R. M.). MATERIA MEDICA AND VIVISECTION. (_Merck's Arch._, 1900, +44-47.) + +Smith (R. M.). SHOULD EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS BE RESTRICTED OR ABOLISHED? +(_Therap. Gaz._, 1884, 497, 533.) + +Smith (Pye). ON VIVISECTION. (_Brit. Med. Journ._ (2), 1879, 349.) + +Stuser (E.). IS VIVISECTION A BENEFIT TO ANIMALS AND MAN, AND JUSTIFIABLE? +(_Med. News_, 1902, 108-111.) + +Tait (Lawson.). THE USELESSNESS OF VIVISECTION UPON ANIMALS AS A METHOD OF +SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. (London, 8vo, 1883 (?).) + +Tuckermann. ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON VIVISECTION. +(_Columb. Med. Journ._, 1897, 237-243.) + +Weber (E.). LES CHAMBRES DE TORTURE DE LA SCIENCE. (Paris, Leroux, 8vo, +1879.) + +Wilberforce (C). WOMEN, CLERGYMEN AND DOCTORS. (_New Review_, 1893, 85-95.) + +Wilks. THE ETHICS OF VIVISECTION. (_Pop. Sc. Monthly_, 1882, xxi., +344-350.) + +Williams. A FEW PERSONAL FACTS CONCERNING EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS OPPOSED TO +THE FALSE FANCIES OF THE PERSECUTORS OF VIVISECTORS. (_Brit. Med. Journ._, +(2), 1876, 104.) + +Wolff. DISPUTATIO PHILOSOPHICA DE MORALITATE ANATOMES CIRCA ANIMALIA VICA +OCCUPATAE. (Leipzig, 1709.) + +Wood (H.). THE CONTROL OF VIVISECTION. (_Bost. Med. and Surg. Journ._, +1895, 342.) + +Zoellner (F.). UEBER DER WISSENSCHAFTLICHEN MISSBRAUCH DER V., MIT +HISTORISCHEN DOCUMENTEN UeBER DIE V. VON MENSCHEN. (Leipzig, 8vo, 1880, 2nd +ed., 1885.) + + + + +APPENDIX C + +THE RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY + + +In January 1908, a Society with the above name was formed in England, the +aims and objects of which are clearly stated in the following letter from +Lord Cromer, its President; this letter was published in the English +newspapers on 24th April 1908:-- + +SIR, + +A Society has been formed, with the name of the Research Defence Society, +to make known the facts as to experiments on animals in this country; the +immense importance to the welfare of mankind of such experiments; and the +great saving of human life and health directly attributable to them. + +The great advance that has been made during the last quarter of a century +in our knowledge of the functions of the body, and of the causes of +disease, would have been impossible without a combination of experiment and +observation. + +The use of antiseptics, and the modern treatment of wounds, is the direct +outcome of the experiments of Pasteur and Lister. Pasteur's discovery of +the microbial cause of puerperal fever has in itself enormously reduced the +deaths of women in child-birth. + +The nature of tuberculosis is now known, and its incidence has materially +diminished. + +We owe the invention of diphtheria antitoxin entirely to experiments on +animals. + +The causes of plague, cholera, typhoid, Mediterranean fever, and sleeping +sickness, have been discovered solely by the experimental method. + +Not only have a large number of drugs been placed at our disposal, but +accurate knowledge has replaced the empirical use of many of those +previously known. + +The evidence before the Royal Commission has shown that these experiments +are conducted with proper care; the small amount of pain or discomfort +inflicted is insignificant compared with the great gain to knowledge and +the direct advantage to humanity. + +While acknowledging in general the utility of the experimental method, +efforts have been made by a section of the public to throw discredit on all +experiments involving the use of animals. The Research Defence Society will +therefore endeavour to make it clear that medical and other scientific men +who employ these methods are not less humane than the rest of their +countrymen, who daily, though perhaps unconsciously, profit by them. + +The Society proposes to give information to all enquirers, to publish +_precis_, articles, and leaflets, to make arrangements for lectures, to +send speakers, if required, to debates, and to assist all who desire to +examine the arguments on behalf of experiments on animals. It hopes to +establish branches in our chief cities, and thus to be in touch with all +parts of the kingdom; and to be at the service of municipal bodies, +hospitals, and other public institutions. + +The Society was formed on 27th January of the present year, and already +numbers more than 800 members.[9] It is not an association of men of +science or of medical men alone; its membership has been drawn from all +departments of public life, and includes representatives of every class of +educated Englishmen and Englishwomen, including many who have taken an +active part in the prevention of cruelty to animals. This fact is in itself +a remarkable protest against the attacks which have been made on the +researches that the Society has been formed to defend. + +The annual subscription is five shillings to cover working expenses: but +larger subscriptions, or donations, will be gladly received. The acting +Hon. Treasurer, _pro tem._, is Mr J. Luard Pattisson, C.B. (of the Lister +Institute),[10] and an account in the Society's name has been opened with +Messrs Coutts & Co., 440 Strand. The Hon. Secretary is Mr Stephen Paget, 70 +Harley Street, W., to whom all communications should be addressed. + +Yours faithfully, + +CROMER, _President_. + + +The following is a list of the pamphlets already issued by the Society:-- + +1. Letter from the President announcing the formation of the Society, April +24. + +2. Report of the inaugural meeting. + +3. Experiments on animals during 1907 in Great Britain and Ireland. + +4. Some facts as to the administration of the Act. + +5. The value of antitoxin in the treatment of diphtheria. + +6. Evidence of Sir Frederick Treves. + +7. Yellow fever and malaria. + +8. Extinction of Malta fever. + +9. Have experiments on animals advanced Therapeutics? + +10. The work of the Research Defence Society. + +11. Vivisection and medicine. Evidence of Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton +before the Royal Commission. + +All or any of these will be forwarded on application to the Hon. Secretary, +Mr Stephen Paget, 70 Harley Street, London, W. Other pamphlets are in +active preparation; arrangements are also being made for meetings, and for +the organisation of Branch Societies in many parts of the kingdom; the +Society is also concerned in the institution of a similar movement for the +defence of research in America. + +Space does not permit the publication of the full list of members of the +Society. The following list of the President and Vice-Presidents, however, +will show that those who have joined are representative not only of the +leading men and women in the medical profession, but also of those who are +pre-eminent in various other branches of science, in literature, politics, +art, and theology. + + +PRESIDENT + +THE EARL OF CROMER, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., O.M. + + +VICE-PRESIDENTS + +HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ABERCORN, K.G. + +SIR WILLIAM ABNEY, K.C.B., F.R.S. + +SIR T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, K.C.B., F.R.S. (_Regius Professor of Physic, +University of Cambridge_). + +SIR L. ALMA-TADEMA, O.M., R.A. + +MRS GARRETT ANDERSON, M.D. + +SIR WILLIAM ANSON, BT., D.C.L., M.P. + +THE RT. HON. LORD AVEBURY, F.R.S. + +[A]SIR JOHN BANKS, K.C.B., M.D. + +THE RT. HON. LORD BARRYMORE. + +THE MARQUIS OF BATH. + +LADY BLISS. + +LADY BUCKLEY. + +LADY BURDON-SANDERSON. + +LORD BLYTH. + +THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF CANTERBURY, D.D. + +EARL CATHCART. + +LORD ROBERT CECIL, K.C., M.P. + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER, D.D. + +THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF CHESTER, D.D. + +LORD CHEYLESMORE, C.V.O. (_Chairman, Middlesex Hospital_). + +THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH, D.D. + +SIR JAMES CRICHTON-BROWNE, F.R.S. + +THE COUNTESS OF CROMER. + +THE RT. HON. SIR SAVILE CROSSLEY, BT., M.V.O. + +SIR EDMUND HAY CURRIE. + +LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., F.R.S. + +THE REV. DR DALLINGER, F.R.S. + +FRANCIS DARWIN, ESQ., F.R.S. + +SIR GEORGE H. DARWIN, K.C.B., F.R.S. + +SIR JAMES DEWAR, F.R.S. + +SIR A. CONAN DOYLE, LL.D. + +THE REV. CANON DUCKWORTH, C.V.O. + +THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF EDINBURGH, D.D. + +EARL EGERTON. + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF EXETER, D.D. + +LORD FABER. + +THE REV. A. M. FAIRBAIRN, D.D., LL.D. (_Principal of Mansfield College, +Oxford_). + +LORD FARRER. + +SIR LUKE FILDES, R.A. + +LORD FORTESCUE. + +SIR THOMAS FRASER, M.D., F.R.S. (_Professor of Clinical Medicine, +University of Edinburgh_). + +SIR DAVID GILL, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S. + +THE EARL OF GLASGOW, G.C.M.G. + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF GRANTHAM, D.D. + +FIELD-MARSHAL LORD GRENFELL, G.C.B., G.C.M.G. + +THE HON. WALTER GUINNESS, M.P. + +THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF HALSBURY, K.B., F.R.S. + +LORD CLAUD HAMILTON. + +H. A. HARBEN, ESQ. (_Chairman, St Mary's Hospital_). + +J. T. HELBY, ESQ. (_Chairman, Metropolitan Asylums Board_). + +SIR SAMUEL HOARE, BT. + +THE HON. SYDNEY HOLLAND (_Chairman, London Hospital_). + +SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., O.M. + +SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS, K.C.B., F.R.S., O.M. + +J. HUGHLINGS JACKSON, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. + +MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, LITT.D. (_Provost of King's College, Cambridge_). + +SIR ALFRED JONES, K.C.M.G. + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF KINGSTON. + +THE EARL OF KILMOREY (_Chairman, Charing Cross Hospital_). + +LORD LAMINGTON, G.C.M.G. + +SIR E. RAY LANKESTER, K.C.B., F.R.S. + +R. F. C. LEITH, M.SC., (_Professor of Pathology, Birmingham_). + +THE RT. HON. LORD LINDLEY, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. + +SIR NORMAN LOCKYER, K.C.B., F.R.S. + +THE RT. HON. WALTER LONG, M.P. + +HENRY LUCAS, ESQ. (_Chairman, University College Hospital_). + +LORD LUDLOW. + +THE HON. G. W. SPENCER LYTTELTON, C.B. + +FREDERICK MACMILLAN, ESQ. (_Chairman, National Hospital for the Paralysed +and Epileptic_). + +THE RT. HON. SIR HERBERT E. MAXWELL, BT., F.R.S. + +LORD METHUEN, G.C.B., K.C.V.O. + +HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF MONTROSE. + +LADY DOROTHY NEVILL. + +THE EARL OF NORTHBROOK (_President, Cancer Hospital_). + +LORD NORTHCLIFFE. + +WILLIAM OSLER, M.D., F.R.S. (_Regius Professor of Medicine, University of +Oxford_). + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, D.D. + +SIR GILBERT PARKER, D.C.L., M.P. + +EDEN PHILLPOTTS, ESQ. + +COUNT PLUNKETT. + +SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, BT., LL.D., D.C.L. + +SIR JOHN DICKSON POYNDER, BT., M.P. (_Chairman, Great Northern Hospital_). + +LADY PRIESTLEY. + +THE RT. REV. THE BISHOP OF NORTH QUEENSLAND, D.D. + +SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY, K.C.B., F.R.S. + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF RANGOON. + +SIR JAMES REID, BT., G.C.V.O. + +LADY RUSSELL REYNOLDS. + +THE VERY REV. HON. THE DEAN OF RIPON, D.D. + +BRITON RIVIERE, ESQ., R.A., D.C.L. + +MRS ROGET. + +MRS ROMANES. + +SIR HENRY ROSCOE, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. + +[A]THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF ROSSE, K.P., LL.D., F.R.S. (_Chancellor of the +University of Dublin_). + +LORD ROTHSCHILD, G.C.V.O. + +SIR ARTHUR RUeCKER, F.R.S. + +THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF SALISBURY, D.D. + +THE RT. HON. THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY. + +THE RT. HON. THE MARQUIS OF SLIGO. + +ISABEL MARCHIONESS OF SLIGO. + +THE RT. HON. SIR CECIL CLEMENTI SMITH, G.C.M.G. + +SIR THOMAS SMITH, BT., K.C.V.O. + +THE HON. W. F. D. SMITH, M.P. (_Chairman, Removal Fund, King's College +Hospital_). + +THE HON. SIR RICHARD SOLOMON, K.C.B., K.C.M.G. + +SIR EDGAR SPEYER, BT. (_President, Poplar Hospital_). + +THE RT. HON. LORD STALBRIDGE. + +LORD STANLEY, K.C.V.O. + +LORD STRATHCONA, G.C.M.G. + +LADY SUTTON. + +MAJ.-GEN. SIR REGINALD TALBOT, K.C.B. + +SIR FREDERICK TREVES, BT., G.C.V.O. + +SIR JOHN BATTY TUKE, M.P. + +SIR WILLIAM TURNER, K.C.B., F.R.S. (_Principal of the University of +Edinburgh_). + +JAMES G. WAINWRIGHT, ESQ. (_Chairman, St Thomas's Hospital_). + +_Earl Waldegrave._ + +_The Rt. Rev. Bishop Welldon._ + +HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K.G. + +A. W. WEST, ESQ. (_Treasurer and Chairman, St George's Hospital_). + +SIR JAMES WHITEHEAD, BT. (_First President of the Lister Institute_). + +MRS ROBERT PEEL WETHERED. + +SIR SAMUEL WILKS, BT., F.R.S. + +THE RT. HON. SIR ALFRED WILLS. + +THE RT. REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. + +THE REV. H. G. WOODS, D.D. (_Master of the Temple_). + +[Note A: Since deceased.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] 22nd October 1908. The number of members is now over 1530, of whom 160 +are ladies. + +[10] 27th May. Dr Sandwith, 31 Cavendish Square, London, W., is now Hon. +Treasurer. + + +TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pros and Cons of Vivisection, by Charles Richet + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROS AND CONS OF VIVISECTION *** + +***** This file should be named 37158.txt or 37158.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/5/37158/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. 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