222 LOUIS PASTEUR 



lessly performed, as well as all experiments on in- 

 oculation or the production of protective serums and 

 vaccines. 



In so far as these organizations aim to check the 

 infliction of useless cruelty, reasonable people can- 

 not fail to sympathize with their efforts. Unfor- 

 tunately, the opponents of animal experimentation, 

 however good their intentions, are much more im- 

 pressed by the sacrifices of a few laboratory ani- 

 mals than by the saving of thousands of human 

 and animal lives that has resulted from the knowl- 

 edge so secured. Pasteur employed a few sheep 

 and rabbits in his experiments on anthrax, but he 

 discovered a preventive vaccine for this deadly 

 disease that has saved thousands of sheep and 

 cattle. It required the sacrifice of several rabbits 

 and dogs to discover the cure for hydrophobia. 

 Any one who had a pet dog given this disease for 

 experimental purposes might be indignant at the 

 investigator. If he had a child who had been saved 

 from a horrible death because of the knowledge 

 gained through the death of the dog, he would prob- 

 ably have a different feeling. Were our intellectual 

 vision limited to the discomforts of a few animals 

 which the investigator uses in his research, we 

 might be inclined to stay his hand. But if our 



