ARTHUR T. CABOT 



SURGEON, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL 



DEAR DR. ERNST, - - My statement before the committee 

 was, as nearly as I can remember, substantially this : 



The recent very great advance in surgery has received 

 most important aid from animal experimentation. The 

 operations on internal organs now possible necessitate, for 

 their safe performance, a very exact knowledge of how 

 these vital organs behave under different conditions of 

 trauma, and this knowledge can only be properly gained 

 by testing various proposed operative measures on animals 

 before trying them on human beings. 



I believe that surgery is on the threshold of great ad- 

 vances, which again need experiments on animals to go 

 forward, and I deprecate, therefore, any legislation which 

 could in any way interfere with these experiments, which 

 are important not only for the treatment of the human 

 race, but also for the treatment of sick and ailing animals. 



From what I have known of the methods of experi- 

 mentation followed, no undue or unnecessary suffering is 

 inflicted. The very nature of the operation, and the 

 necessity for having the animal quiet during operation, 

 makes anesthesia most important, and it is, as far as I 

 know, universally employed. Here ends my personal 

 statement. 



In answer to cross-examination, I said that Mr. Tait, 

 whose statements seem to be of so much importance to 

 the petitioners, was a man of wild statements. He had 

 said at one time " that if he could get enough disease 



