60 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



dogs, and coughing for one day only in another dog), 

 until in one dog (Experiment VII) the lips of the glottis 

 were removed as well as the epiglottis. This dog coughed 

 always after eating, though after the fourth day he could 

 take many successive swallows without choking. As soon 

 as this fact was definitely established the dog was killed, as 

 were all the other animals experimented on. All were so 

 deeply under the influence of ether at the time of the 

 operation that they could feel nothing. (Three other 

 experiments, made later, established the fact that the epi- 

 glottis was necessary in case the glottis itself was defective ; 

 that is, that the removal of part of the glottis, leaving the 

 epiglottis intact, did not impair swallowing, while removing 

 the same parts and also the epiglottis caused choking in 

 two dogs. This made, in all, ten experiments in which 

 three choked quite constantly. Experiment number nine, 

 alluded to by the counsel, was one of the last three, not 

 number seven, to which I supposed he alluded.) These 

 experiments established the fact that the epiglottis could 

 be removed for disease if the cut was not made sufficiently 

 deep to include the lips of the glottis, and in case the glot- 

 tis itself was intact. 



With a view to ascertaining if the saving of life could be 

 directly traced to this knowledge, in the establishment of 

 which my experiment was one of the essential factors, I 

 have recently asked one of the physicians in the throat 

 department of The Massachusetts General Hospital whether 

 he could assure me that as the result of tJiis knowledge tJie 

 epiglottis had been removed in specific instances for otherwise 

 incurable and progressive disease ; he assured me that such 

 was the fact, and mentioned tuberculosis as the disease. 



This, then, is an illustration of the class of experiments 

 in which one can say that the experiment was directly ap- 

 plicable to the saving of human life. In the majority of 

 instances the influence, though quite as essential, is more 



