6 JELLY-FISH, STAE-FISII, AND SEA-URCHINS. 



feel tliat it is dcsivcable to toucli before proceeding 

 to give au account of my experiments, and this has 

 reference to the vivisection which many of t])cse 

 experiments have entailed. But in saying what 

 I have to say in this connection I can afford to be 

 brief, inasmuch as it is not needful to discuss tho 

 so-called vivisection question. I have merely to 

 make it plain that, so far as the experiments which 

 I am about to describe are concerned, there is not 

 an}^ reasonable ground for supposing that pain can 

 have been suffered by the animals. And this it is 

 easy to show ; for the animals in question are so low 

 in the scale of life, that to suppose them capable 

 of conscious suffering would be in the higliest 

 degree unreasonable. Thus, for instance, they are 

 considerably lower in the scale of organization tlian 

 an oyster, and in none of the experiments which 

 I have performed upon them has so much laceration 

 of Jivino' tissue been entailed as that whicli is 

 caused by opening an oyster and eating it alive, 

 after due application of pepper and vinegar. There- 

 fore, if any one should be foolish enough to object 

 to my experiments on the score of vivisection, a 

 fortiori they are bound to object to the culinary 

 use of oysters. Of course, it may be answered to 

 this that two blacks do not make a white, and that 

 I have not by this illustration succeeded in proving 

 my negative. To this, however, I may in turn 

 reply that, for the purpose of morally justifying my 

 experiments on the ground which I have adopted, 

 it is not incumbent on me to prove any negative ; 

 it is rather for my critics to prove a positive. That 



