PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE. 9 



Were we to descend to particulars, it could 

 easily be proved, that the premises which they 

 assume, consisting, for the most part, of the 

 mutilated and unnatural condition of things, 

 can seldom convey to the mind data, fit for 

 physiological science ; that the conclusions 

 which they draw, however true they may be 

 from the principles which they assume, are 

 most erroneous in themselves, so far as relates 

 to the thing which they are intended to explain. 



This piece of humanity is exactly analogous to that posess- 

 ed by Santerre during the maisacres in Paris, in the early part 

 of the French revolution. At that time he was commanding 

 officer of the national guard, and it was in his power, had he 

 possessed the inclination, to have prevented a multitude of 

 persons from being sacrificed: during this period, however he 

 remained quietly at table, while innocent blood flowed in tor- 

 rents. One of his satellites, by accident, put his foot on the 

 tail of a little dog situated under the table, which occasioned 

 the dog to squeak ; Santerre, in great agony, reproached v, ith 

 bitterness the inhumanity and cruelty of the fellow who caused 

 the sufferings of the poor animal. I cannot avoid lamenting, 

 more especially, that in many of the popular lectures which 

 are given in different public and private institutions, in this 

 country, that ladies sit with composure, to see the sciatic 

 nerves of frogs stripped of the surrounding flesh, and by 

 means of the Galvanic fire, the animal thrown into the most 

 dreadful convulsions : to behold different animals poisoned 

 by means of different mephitic gases ; or, by placing them 

 under the receiver of an air-pump, and exhausting the air out 

 of it, to observe, with indifference, the infliction of a languish- 

 ing and lingering dath. 



