VIVISECTION AND PRACTICAL MEDICINE. 615 



living long years ago before the hubbub of Christian and anti-Christian 

 controversy, exhorted us not to follow the advice of those who bid us 

 tame down our aspirations to our mortal condition, but as far as possi- 

 ble to think the thoughts of immortals, and to live in our every act up 

 to the noblest part within us.* 



++*-- 



VIVISECTION AND PEACTICAL MEDICINE. 



By G. F. YEO, F. E. C. S., 



PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN KING'S COLLEGE. 



OVER and over again we have been challenged by the opponents 

 of science to give " one conclusive example where experiment 

 has been of direct use to practical medicine." To any one familiar 

 with the history of scientific medicine there can be no difficulty in 

 finding numerous such instances, and, as a matter of fact, many exam- 

 ples have from time to time been given by various writers ; but to 

 make these cases satisfactory and conclusive to persons who know but 

 little, and do not care to know more, of the true bearings of the ques- 

 tion, is a very difficult matter. Such a test is totally wrong and mis- 

 leading when applied to the utility of experiment on the lower ani- 

 mals. The matter must be viewed from a wider stand-point than that 

 embracing only single instances of direct benefits accruing from spe- 

 cific experiments. 



The primary object of experimental research is to advance physi- 

 ology the science which teaches us the uses of the various organs 

 and textures of the body in the normal state, and how the working of 

 the animal economy is carried on in health. The value of physiology 

 depends on the knowledge it gives us of the normal operations of the 

 body, and not on the few cases in which certain experiments happen 

 to aid us in understanding disease, and thus directly promote the 

 practice of the healing art. Our argument is rather this : Physiology 

 is the foundation of both pathology and therapeutics, which together 

 make up medicine ; and therefore rational medicine depends directly 

 upon physiology for its strong growth and genuine progress. 



Now, physiology can not advance without vivisection ; experiment 

 on living animals is as essential to its progress (though far less general 

 in application) as is dissection for the study of anatomy. Therefore, 

 experimental research, including that carried out on living animals, is 

 as necessary for the progress of the practice of medicine as is experi- 

 mental research in any other science for its advancement and appli- 

 cation to daily life. The immediate object of physiological experi- 

 ment is, then, not to make out new practical methods of treating dis- 



* Aristotle's " Nic. Ethics," Book X, chap, vii, 8. 



