CONCLUSIONS 



and now long since obsolete, are cited to harrow 

 up the sentimental, as though they were still in 

 use. A disposition to deny the well recognized 

 scientific importance of animal experiments is 

 also displayed by taking a supercilious atti- 

 tude of incredulity towards scientific work. 

 Such methods do not detract from the im- 

 portance of scientific study, but they have 

 influenced the uninformed and the neurotic to 

 an attitude of hostility towards it. By appeals 

 to the emotions of these classes it is always 

 possible to awaken the old superstitious spirit 

 of antagonism and misunderstanding of sci- 

 ence, with which human progress continually 

 has had to contend. They exalt their own un- 

 disciplined emotions above the agonies of man- 

 kind.* 



*An ' ' antivivisection exhibit' ' is at present on view to the 

 public for two weeks at a busy point in the shopping district 

 in New York City. This is a traveling exhibit professedly 

 to ' ' educate ' ' the public regarding the ' ' horrors ' ' of animal 

 experimentation. The chief objects exhibited are stuffed dogs 

 confined to animal holders. These things are put in the front 

 window to attract the crowd. The dogs are of the type of lap 

 dogs and other pets, fastened in distressing positions. Visitors 

 are told that this is the way dogs are fastened in laboratories, 

 but anesthesia is not mentioned. An attendant explains 

 that a certain part of the holder is for the purpose of "break- 

 ing the jaws of the dogs. ; An oven contains a stuffed cat 

 in an aspect of great suffering. This, an attendant informs 

 the visitors, is an apparatus used in laboratories to roast ani- 

 mals alive "in order to study their nerve action and circu- 

 lation ! ' The oven probably was secured from a laboratory ; 

 it is an ordinary laboratory incinerator which is used to burn 



149 



