HENRY P. BOWDITCH 77 



" II. That the existing statutes furnish sufficient se- 

 curity against cruelty in vivisection as well as against 

 cruelty in general. 



" III. That experience has shown it to be very un- 

 desirable to impose restrictions of any kind upon the 

 advancement of medical science by the researches of 

 properly qualified persons. 



" IV. That in view of the above facts, it is, in the 

 opinion of the Councillors, inexpedient to legislate 

 upon this subject. 



" That a copy of the above preamble and resolutions 

 be transmitted to the Massachusetts Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals." 



A list of sixty-eight scientific and medical societies (be- 

 ginning with the National Academy of Sciences) which 

 have adopted similar resolutions is given in Senate 

 Document No 31, 54th Congress, 2d Session, Dec. 21, 

 1896. 



We claim, then, that no abuse of the right to experiment 

 upon living animals has been shown to have occurred in 

 this State. We further claim that, should such a case 

 arise, the existing laws provide a sufficient remedy and 

 regard the contrary opinion of the petitioners as entitled 

 to no consideration until the inadequacy of the present 

 statute shall have been demonstrated. 



In endeavoring to ascertain how much pain is inflicted 

 in physiological experiments it must be borne in mind first, 

 that the external signs of suffering are apt to be misleading ; 

 second, that even the higher domestic animals seem to have 

 a sensibility to pain far less acute than that of man, as is 

 shown, for instance, by the fact that a horse with a broken 

 leg will limp about to graze, dangling the fractured limb 

 behind him in a way which would cause a human being 

 exquisite agony; third, that (according to Professor Yeo's 



