1 875.] VIVISECTION. 20 



5 



most likely to do good work. I would gladly punish severely 

 any one who operated on an animal not rendered insensible, if 

 the experiment made this possible ; but here again I do not 

 see that a magistrate or jury could possibly determine such a 

 point. Therefore I conclude, if (as is likely) some experi- 

 ments have been tried too often, or anaesthetics have not been 

 used when they could have been, the cure must be in the 

 improvement of humanitarian feelings. Under this point of 

 view I have rejoiced at the present agitation. If stringent 

 laws are passed, and this is likely, seeing how unscientific the 

 House of Commons is, and that the gentlemen of England 

 are humane, as long as their sports are not considered, which 

 entail a hundred or thousand-fold more suffering than the 

 experiments of physiologists — if such laws are passed, the 

 result will assuredly be that physiology, w r hich has been until 

 within the last few years at a standstill in England, will 

 languish or quite cease. It will then be carried on solely on 

 the Continent ; and there will be so many the fewer workers 

 on this grand subject, and this I should greatly regret. By 

 the way, F. Balfour, who has worked for two or three years 

 in the laboratory at Cambridge, declares to George that he 

 has never seen an experiment, except with animals rendered 

 insensible. No doubt the names of doctors will have great 

 weight with the House of Commons ; but very many prac- 

 titioners neither know nor care anything about the progress 

 of knowledge. I cannot at present see my way to sign any 

 petition, without hearing what physiologists thought would 

 be its effect, and then judging for myself. I certainly could 

 not sign the paper sent me by Miss Cobbe, with its monstrous 

 (as it seems to me) attack on Virchow for experimenting on 

 the Trichinae. I am tired and so no more. 



Yours affectionately, 

 Charles Darwin. 



