ch. xv.] VIVISECTION, 1881. 307 



Times of April 22, 1881. On the same day he wrote to 

 Mr. Romanes : 



" As I have a fair opportunity, I sent a letter to the 

 Times on Vivisection, which is printed to-day. I thought 

 it fair to bear my share of the abuse poured in so atrocious 

 a manner on all physiologists." 



C. D. to the Editor of the Times. 



Sir, I do not wish to discuss the views expressed by 

 Miss Cobbe in the letter which appeared in the Times of 

 the 19th inst. ; but as she asserts that I have "misin- 

 formed " my correspondent in Sweden in saying that " the 

 investigation of the matter by a Royal Commission proved 

 that the accusations made against our English physiologists 

 w T ere false," I will merely ask leave to refer to some other 

 sentences from the report of the Commission. 



(1.) The sentence " It is not to be doubted that inhu- 

 manity may be found in persons of very high position as 

 physiologists," which Miss Cobbe quotes from page 17 of 

 the report, and which, in her opinion, " can necessarily con- 

 cern English physiologists alone and not foreigners," is im- 

 mediately followed by the words " We have seen that it was 

 so in Magendie." Magendie was a French physiologist who 

 became notorious some half century ago for his cruel ex- 

 periments on living animals. 



(2.) The Commissioners, after speaking of the "general 

 sentiment of humanity " prevailing in this country, say 

 (p. 10):- 



" This principle is accepted generally by the very highly 

 educated men whose lives are devoted either to scientific in- 

 vestigation and education or to the mitigation or the re- 

 moval of the sufferings of their fellow-creatures; though 

 differences of degree in regard to its practical application 

 will be easily discernible by those who study the evidence 

 as it has been laid before us." 



Again, according to the Commissioners (p. 10): 



" The secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention 

 of Cruelty to Animals, when asked whether the general tend- 

 ency of the scientific world in this country is at variance 

 with humanity, says he believes it to be very different indeed 

 from that of foreign physiologists ; and while giving it as 

 the opinion of the society that experiments are performed 

 which are in their nature beyond any legitimate province of 



