146 ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



was no less clear from what had happened to me, when, 

 as president of the British Association, I had defended 

 Brown Sequard, that I might expect to meet with 

 every description of abuse and misrepresentation if 

 such demonstrations were given." 



Much more of equal importance follows ; but it will not 

 be necessary to weary the patience of the committee upon 

 this matter any further. 



AS TO THE OPENING AGAINST THE BILL 



Five years ago there was the same exhibition as has oc- 

 curred in these hearings. At that time the President of the 

 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals appeared in advocacy of the then bill and called 

 upon the same vice-president of the society as appeared 

 for the petitioners for this bill. At that time, as at this, the 

 same gentleman appeared, and then, as now, testified that 

 there had been no formal action of the society, nor even 

 of the directors, in favor of the bill. It would seem to us 

 that the activity of the society must be somewhat sluggish 

 if it takes so long as this to get at an expression of its 

 opinion. 



A series of statistics were presented here purporting to 

 give the expression of opinion of many physicians in this 

 vicinity in regard to animal experimentation. As was 

 brought out during the hearing, the circular letter addressed 

 to the physicians had at least one name on it that was put 

 there without asking the permission of the owner who 

 wrote a letter to certify that he stood on the matter of 

 animal experimentation as do Dr. Bowditch and myself. 

 Furthermore the addressed envelopes were not opened by 

 the person to whom they were addressed, so that the sta- 

 tistics collected were tabulated by an interested person. 

 Finally, the circular letter and its replies could not, in any 



