51 



these. These experiments can only be performed in special 

 laboratories owing to the expense and complexity of the instru- 

 ments required. 



Painful experiments are regarded with aversion by both Pro- 

 fessors and pupils. All the Lecturers in London agree that public 

 opinion among students is such that they would not dare to 

 perform a painful experiment before a class. There appears to be 

 less sensitiveness in this respect on the Continent, but of this 

 there is no actual proof. Acts of Parliament passed here cannot 

 influence doings abroad, and to punish Englishmen for the sins 

 committed by foreigners is useless and absurd. 



The next question is, has any good been derived from these 

 experiments ? Such competent authorities as Burdon Sanderson 

 and Humphry say that the practice of vivisection and the 

 advance of jDhysiological science go hand in hand, and conse- 

 quently we owe nine-tenths of our physiological knowledge to 

 continental observers. The importance of the discovery of the 

 Circulation of the Blood cannot be doubted. It has been gradu- 

 ally made out principally through vivisectural experiments 

 commenced 1700 years ago by Galen. Harvey distinctly states 

 that it was by vivisections practised almost daily that he was able 

 to make out the functions of the heart and the circulation through 

 the lungs. The completion of the scheme was made by Malphigi, 

 who discovered the capillaries in vivisected frogs. 



It was by vivisection. Sir Charles Bell tells us, that he made 

 his important discoveries as to the functions of the spinal cord 

 and nerves. He showed that the facial nerve was a motor and 

 not a sensory nerve, and so put an end to the useless practice of 

 dividing it for facial Tic. He also showed how to distinguish 

 one form of facial paralysis of little or no consequence from 

 another which portends the greatest danger. This was done 

 by an experiment scarcely more painful than the prick of a pin. 

 He showed also that a man was not necessarily an impostor who 

 moved his legs when they were touched, although he said they 

 were paralysed. The discovery by Bernard and Pavy of the 

 glycogenic function of the liver would have been absolutely 

 impossible without experiments which necessitated the death — 

 though without pain — of certain animals. Upon its importance 

 in relation to diabetes I need not dilate. 



