8 PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE. 



Men, such as these, however qualified they 

 may be to act well, seldom think correctly. 



experiment are very trifling, and that it it generally done with 

 a degree of cold-blooded apathy which is shocking to huma- 

 nity, I shall relate a few, among a multitude of similar ex- 

 periments, that were made on living dogs, in order to ascertain 

 the change of color which the blood underwent, during the 

 process of respiration. " I procured several large dogs," says 

 one of these gentlemen, " and after removing the sternum or 

 breast bone of each, and exposing to view the trunks of the 

 pulmonary arteries and veins, &c. &c." But another, and he, 

 by far the most eminent of all, after going through the preli- 

 minary operation of cutting the parietes of the thorax, and 

 sawing the ribs, and exposing to view the organs which it con- 

 tains, says, " I have repeated this experiment several times 

 upon several animals, and commonly for half an hour at a 

 time ; which was sufficient to allow me to make my observa- 

 tions with coolness and accuracy ; it was curious to see in the 

 first part of the experiment, the coronary arteries turn darker 

 and darker ; but on blowing air into the lungs, the blood gra- 

 dually resumed the florid red. 1 cut and sliced off a piece 

 from the lungs, and found that the colour of the blood which 

 came from the wound, corresponded with the above effect," 

 &c. &c. 



I should not have dwelt upon this subject, had I not known 

 that the practice of torturing animals among young men is 

 become, of late, very much the fashion. Such are the tender 

 mercies which they have for themselves, that to take away 

 from the poor creatures the only consolation left them, the 

 power of expressing, by their cries, the anguish which they 

 suffer ; they first begin by cutting and dividing the recurrent 

 branch of the parvagum, which subserves to the motion of the 

 tongue and lower jaw, and, by that means, prevent the animal 

 from howling. 



