14 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



stop it. This is an efficient restriction, which should be 

 kept well before us. 



I am here as a layman in the matter. I am told that the 

 results of vivisection are of the greatest importance. I 

 know of one result, that is of the greatest possible bene- 

 fit tons all, --I mean antitoxin. In the last two weeks 

 diphtheria has appeared in the household of one of our well- 

 known citizens. Two or three children were taken ill with 

 diphtheria. All the members of the household, seventeen 

 in number, have been treated with antitoxin, and the 

 scourge averted. No one can say what would have hap- 

 pened if there had been no antitoxin. The terror of diph- 

 theria is now passing away. 



I understand that anti-vivisection has been agitated 

 largely on account of the research work in vivisection. 

 The question is often asked,--! asked it of myself, --Is it 

 right to encourage vivisection where there is no definite 

 purpose or definite object for that particular experiment ? 

 Discovery comes only by research ; and the student never 

 knows where his research will take him. If I am not 

 greatly mistaken, the Bell telephone was discovered by 

 what might be called general research. Mr. Bell was 

 searching for more perfect instruments in his work for 

 deaf mutes, when he discovered the telephone. Scientific 

 research, to be efficient, must be left as free as possible. 

 The humane spirit of the men of science in this country 

 must be trusted, and they are, I am confident, worthy of 

 the trust. 



Whatever the restrictions in law, vivisection will go on, 

 but the victims will be men and women. Surgeons must 

 experiment on the bodies of men unless they have had 

 full opportunity to first experiment on the bodies of ani- 

 mals. Through the sacrifice of the lower animals under 

 the humane hand of the men of science the lives of men 

 and woman arc saved. 



