defense by me would simply be a waste of words. 

 But I also believe that much needless butchering 

 has been perpetrated in the name of science. Like 

 the enterprise of so-called "scientific collectors," 

 experimentation is to many nothing more than a 

 species of hobby — a pursuit wherein the fascina- 

 tion lies not in the acquiring of solid learning but 

 in the translating of tortures into graphs and 

 curves ; which is to say, recording by the means of 

 pretty plots on paper the unimportant fact that 

 the stumps of a hermit-crab's amputated eye-stalks 

 will grow new cornea-lenses, or that the pigment 

 cells of a flayed squid will respond to light. To 

 such length has the madness of these devotees car- 

 ried them in their destructive diversions that they 

 have completely lost the significance of research, 

 which is to make methods in experimentation a 

 means of obtaining higher knowledge, and not the 

 end. Their frenzy, in fine, seems to have little in 

 common with the true spirit of scientific investi- 

 gation. It is more of a sort allied with a zeal that 

 would have discredited even that of those who 

 inspired the cruelties of a darker age — the Spanish 

 Inquisition was above slaughter solely for 



slaughter's sake . . . 



[242] 



