E. H. CAPEN 



PRESIDENT OF TUFTS COLLEGE 



I OPPOSE both of the bills now before this committee on 

 two or three important grounds. 



1. The proposition to confine this kind of biological 

 investigation to doctors of medicine only is unwise. Some 

 of the most eminent biologists in the world are not doctors 

 of medicine. They have not had time to study medicine. 

 To exclude them from the privilege of research in their 

 specialty would seriously cripple the laboratories, not only 

 in our colleges, but even in our medical schools. 



2. These bills are an interference with the freedom of 

 scientific investigation ; and this is just as essential to the 

 efficiency of the professor's work as freedom of speech. 

 The immense progress that has been made in medical 

 science is largely due to this freedom. It is unscientific 

 to assume that we have reached the limit of progress. It 

 is more rational to believe that we have only entered upon 

 a field of investigation which is yet to yield the greatest 

 benefits to the human race. 



3. This legislation is unnecessary. The facts of ex- 

 cessive cruelty alleged by the petitioners have not been 

 proved. The experiments in the schools of this Common- 

 wealth which pass under the name of vivisection are 

 humanely conducted and for the benefit of humanity. 

 When I look at the men whose lives have been devoted, 

 through patient and painstaking research, to the mitigation 

 of human suffering, the promotion of human health, and 

 the prolongation of human life, I cannot refrain from 



