2 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



a saving of human life ! What a saving of human distress ! 

 This saving of life, this relief from anxiety and dread, is 

 dependent on the production of the strange agent, anti- 

 toxin. In that production it is necessary that horses should 

 be inoculated with toxin of the diphtheria bacillus ; and 

 that having passed through a fever they should be kept for 

 periodic bleeding about once a month --perhaps for 

 years. The serum from their blood is then tested on 

 guinea pigs, all of which suffer and many of which die. 

 Discomfort and pain for the animals used, and death for 

 some of them, are necessary incidents of the manufacture 

 of the diphtheria antitoxin. 



The question for your committee is whether it is worth 

 while that animals should so serve the human race. That 

 is the bottom of this question - - whether it is right that 

 animals should so serve the human race. I believe it is 

 altogether right. I should go much beyond that simple 

 affirmative, and say that I should not be able to fix a limit 

 to the amount of suffering that animals ought to be sub- 

 jected to to save one human baby. Would any of us 

 weigh the life of a thousand guinea pigs against the life 

 of one of our children? That is the question for this 

 committee. 



Let me call your attention also to the fact that the hu- 

 manity which would prevent human suffering is a deeper 

 and truer humanity than the humanity which would save 

 pain or death to animals. 



The human race does not count the death of an animal 

 at all. We stop animal life without the slightest compunc- 

 tion. Millions of animals that are enjoying life -- bullocks, 

 sheep, chickens, fish, oysters are killed for our tables 

 every year. We do more ; we interfere with the natural 

 happiness of animals all of us, every day. We do not 

 hesitate for a moment to do so. See how we geld male 

 animals; how we deprive the cow of her calf; how we kill 



