JAMES DE NORMANDIE, D.D. 



PASTOR, FIRST CHURCH, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS 



(Statement presented by him, in writing instead of in person, because 

 of an engagement that prevented his attendance upon the hearing at the 

 time when he had expected to do so.) 



WHILE I am in entire agreement with all persons who by 

 law or otherwise would prevent any unnecessary suffering 

 of the lower creatures, the proposed " Act to Regulate the 

 Practice of Vivisection " seems to me strangely to overlook 

 or misunderstand the whole purpose and results of the 

 study of physiology, anatomy, or biology. 



In the mysterious realm of life we are far from final 

 truth ; there is still more or greater light to break upon 

 scientific research. 



In physics we know some things about electricity and 



chemistry, but of these each succeeding class needs not 



only the text-book but the experiments of the laboratory, 



- these are infinitely more important to each succeeding 



class in biology. 



When we think of the indescribable sufferings which war, 

 to-day and always, brings to untold thousands of the higher 

 forms of the brute creation, and generally for no good re- 

 sults, and of the sufferings brought to millions of dumb 

 animals that we may have food, the objections to scientific 

 research seem like straining out the gnat and swallowing 

 the camel. 



With every law or effort which tends to increase the 

 humane spirit we have profound sympathy, and while laws 

 can do something to create and deepen this spirit, we con- 



