I4O ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



shown to be pre-eminently useful in all other forms of 

 instruction, and depend upon books. How is it that 

 books arc made up, except of facts that have been es- 

 tablished in laboratories, that have been sifted and filtered 

 out and digested, until the good in them has been obtained 

 and presented in the text-books? Are we never to be 

 allowed that best of all text-books the thing itself ? 



These are the points upon which counsel said the evi- 

 dence offered would bear, and closed his opening by the 

 assertion that the weight of authority, outside of the com- 

 mittee room and of Harvard College, is upon the side 

 of the petitioners. 



It is for the committee to decide how far this is true. 

 The evidence submitted was practically wholly of a hear- 

 say character or opinion. One witness made the extraor- 

 dinary assertion that a medical student pursues his studies, 

 not to have his mind trained, but to get at facts. Such a 

 student might as well be a parrot ! 



The further assertion by the same witness that vivisection 

 has been of no practical value to medicine, but of some 

 to surgery, will be spoken of later. It is to be feared 

 that this gentleman may give some trouble to the health 

 authorities in his management of infectious diseases. 



Another witness for the bill, whose knowledge of cruelty 

 is based upon reading, but whose opposition to animal 

 experimentation is based upon moral grounds, himself 

 refuted the assertion that persons engaged in research 

 become callous, by his remembrance of Dr. Holmes and 

 the rebuke administered to the thoughtless student. Dr. 

 Holmes had not become hardened, although he taught 

 anatomy and physiology together for many years, but 

 was quick to sec and attend to such behavior as that of 

 this student. Could an agent of a society for the preven- 

 tion of cruelty to animals have done it more effectively or 

 more quickly? 



