I 16 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



gloat over the quiverings of animal flesh, it would be a 

 losing game for him, and his employment would soon come 

 to an end. No institution would supply the funds for such 

 personal pleasures. 



In contrast to this imaginary picture, upon whose injus- 

 tice and cruelty I need not dwell, let me place the vivisector 

 so-called in another light. Let me say in the beginning 

 that if there be any brutalizing of human nature, any low- 

 ering of the moral sense and blunting of humane instincts, 

 they arc due not to the operations and experiments on ani- 

 mals, but to the necessity of associating with the brute. 

 The investigator is at a disadvantage in that his associates 

 are animals rather than human beings, in which the ele- 

 mental instincts of the brute are at all times cropping out. 

 In fact there is nothing so disheartening as to witness the 

 sudden manifestations of savagery of animals towards one 

 another which may bring to nought laborious experi- 

 ments. 



I wish to appeal for the investigator rather than against 

 him for doing disagreeable work in disagreeable surround- 

 ings for the good of society. There would be to-day a 

 great exodus from biological and medical laboratories if 

 those engaged in work there were convinced that their 

 work was of no benefit to mankind or if mankind repudi- 

 ated it. I believe that I can safely say for those whom I 

 know that this is all that is keeping them there. 



The use of animals in this work has come to stay, unless 

 indeed science should advance so far as to substitute in 

 some cases, at least, chemical for biological tests, as for 

 instance a chemical test for diphtheria toxin and antitoxin. 

 Society cannot dispense with them at present. We might 

 as well go back to the sun-dial and the hour-glass. But 

 how can we advance towards better methods if the utility 

 of investigations is to be passed upon by any but the most 

 highly trained? The work that led up to Behring's anti- 



