MAURICE H. RICHARDSON, M.D. 



SURGEON, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL 



DEAR DR. ERNST, The points which I endeavored to 

 cover in my testimony before the legislative committee are 

 as follows : 



I. The present laws permit a wise freedom of investiga- 

 tion in the hands of those best qualified to make such in- 

 vestigation --men who are truly and deeply humane, who 

 would hesitate long before inflicting the slightest pain were 

 it not that in the end humanity is the gainer. 



II. It permits renewed investigations in the hands of 

 physiologists and students investigations of which the 

 surgeons are quick to take advantage in the cause of 

 humanity. 



The physiological investigations especially desirable for 

 the advancement of surgery are : 



(i) Experiments upon the brain and spinal cord, by 

 which the injuries and diseases of these organs may be 

 clearly recognized and exactly located, so that the sur- 

 geon may unhesitatingly and unerringly apply his remedy 

 to the part affected. Without animal experimentation, 

 surgeons must for years blindly inflict upon suffering 

 human beings operations unscientific in conception and 

 uncertain in effect, just as they were obliged to do, for ex- 

 ample, in the operation for the control of cerebral hemor- 

 rhage before the experiments upon monkeys enabled them 

 to tell just where the bleeding is going on, and just how it 

 can be stopped. 



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