C. F. HODGE 37 



instruction of teachers and in research in the field of nerve 

 physiology. I will not detain you to describe how im- 

 portant experiments on living animals are for demonstra- 

 tions to classes, that point has been dealt with; but I 

 wish in passing to add that I should simply stop teaching 

 if I were to be confined to book methods, which this bill 

 would make necessary. No book, lecture, chart, or de- 

 scription can tell or give any adequate idea of complicated 

 processes in physiology; and in endeavoring to produce 

 research men, as I do, men who may become themselves 

 independent investigators, it is absolutely essential that 

 they see experiments as they are in nature. 



On the side of investigation, I have been working mainly 

 upon the nerve cell, the changes in it due to fatigue, to 

 sleep, the influence upon it of alcohol and other drugs. 

 An extended series of experiments has also been made 

 upon the influence of alcohol upon the growth of animals 

 and upon their activities and upon the vigor of their off- 

 spring. This latter work has been carried on at Clark 

 University for the Committee of Fifty, organized for the 

 investigation of the alcohol problem. Results of these 

 researches have been published in medical, scientific, and, 

 to some extent, in popular journals. 



The question is, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, would 

 you vote to close a laboratory of this character? 



But, as I stated at the outset, my remonstrance is not 

 directed against any particular clause or section, but rather 

 against the bill in toto. Every attempt at legislation of this 

 character has endeavored to affix the stigma of " human 

 degeneracy," of criminality upon leaders and workers in 

 science. While bald assertions have been brought forward 

 by the petitioners to this effect, they have not shown the 

 slightest ground for such statements in a single case. The 

 spirit back of this whole agitation is an insult and an out- 

 rage to scientific men. That is what I object to. With no 



