8O ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



In closing let us ask ourselves what legislation on this 

 subject may be reasonably expected to accomplish. In 

 answering this question the following propositions must be 

 borne in mind. 



1. Physics and chemistry are both experimental sci- 

 ences ; neither can advance except by the experimental 

 method. 



2. Physiology deals with the physical and chemical phe- 

 nomena occurring in living animals, and is therefore also 

 an experimental science. 



3. Physiology is the only rational basis for medicine, for 

 it is obviously impossible, without a knowledge of the 

 normal functions of organs, as revealed by physiology, to 

 understand those derangements of function which consti- 

 tute disease. 



It is evident, therefore, that medicine must advance by 

 experiment in one form or another. Nothing that can be 

 done in this State House can prevent that. 



All that legislation can do is to determine to some 

 extent who shall be the experimenters and who the vic- 

 tims, and to decide whether the " experiments shall be 

 few, carefully planned, conclusive, and economical of ani- 

 mal life, or shall be numerous, accidental, vague, and 

 wasteful of human life." 



I think, in settling this question, that we may safely take 

 for our guide the words of Him who said, " Ye are of more 

 value than many sparrows." 



