34 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



" Nothing in this act contained shall be construed 

 to prohibit or interfere with any properly conducted 

 scientific experiments or investigations, which experi- 

 ments shall be performed only under the authority of 

 the faculty of some regularly incorporated medical col- 

 lege or university of the State of New York." 



The successful passage of the English Act in 1876 caused 

 agitation for similar legislation to spread to all Europe and 

 America. France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, 

 Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, all promptly reversed 

 England's decision, and, among the States, New York reaf- 

 firmed its former action in 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1883, and 

 a similar bill failed to pass in Pennsylvania in 1885. 



The action of Germany is particularly instructive in this 

 connection. In 1880 and again in iSSi mammoth peti- 

 tions were presented to the Reichstag for the passage of a 

 law similar to the English Act. The German Minister of 

 Education made a thorough investigation of the subject 

 and sent letters of inquiry to all the medical faculties of the 

 Empire. Without a single exception these faculties re- 

 turned the answer that vivisection both as a method of 

 demonstration and of research was absolutely indispen- 

 sable to their work and strongly opposed legislative in- 

 terference. On the other hand the movement for the 

 protection of animals from cruelty had grown enormously 

 in Germany. One hundred and forty societies had sprung 

 up, with a membership of sixty thousand. Five of these, 

 numbering about two thousand, had taken a decided stand 

 against vivisection and two had been organized expressly 

 for its abolition. But in 1883, when sixty societies (Thier- 

 schutzvercinc) sent representatives to the Congress at 

 Wiesbaden, and the subject of vivisection was called for 

 discussion, not a voice was raised against it. 



This bit of history is of present importance as illus- 

 trating what Dr. Hall has said with reference to the 



