66 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



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and the effect of its enactment. To this end let me quote 

 the language of Lord Sherbrooke (better known as the 

 Right Honorable Robert Lowe) : 1 



" The commission entirely acquitted English physi- 

 ologists of the charge of cruelty. They pronounced a 

 well-merited eulogium on the humanity of the medi- 

 cal profession in England. They pointed out that 

 medical students were extremely sensitive to the in- 

 fliction of pain upon animals, and that the feeling of 

 the public at large was penetrated by the same senti- 

 ment. . . . They then proceeded to consider to what 

 restrictions they should subject the humane and excel- 

 lent persons in whose favor they had so decidedly re- 

 ported. Their proceeding was very singular. They 

 acquitted the accused, and sentenced them to be 

 under the surveillance of the police for life." 



Remarkable as was this conclusion of the commission, 

 the action of Parliament based upon it was still more ex- 

 traordinary, for a law was enacted which, taken in con- 

 nection with the previous legislation, has brought about 

 a state of things in England which has been well de- 

 scribed as one " in which it is penal to use domestic 

 animals in any way cruelly, but in which any one may 

 torture wild creatures in whatever fashion he likes pro- 

 vided it is not for scientific purposes." 



A few extracts from the recently published letters of 

 Huxley may also throw light upon the subject. Huxley 

 represented physiological science on the Royal Commis- 

 sion referred to by Lord Sherbrooke, and these extracts 

 show how far he was from assenting to the law as finally 

 enacted. 



1 Contemporary Review, Oct., 1876. 



