436 VIVISECTION [Chap. XII 



Letter 766 animals from all useless suffering ; and in this case I believe 

 that you could not do a greater service than to warn the 

 Home Secretary with respect to the appointment of Royal 

 Commissioners, that ordinary doctors know little or nothing 

 about Physiology as a science, and are incompetent to judge 

 of its high importance and of the probability of its hereafter 

 conferring great benefits on mankind. 



Letter 767 To Lord Playfair. 



Down, May 28th. 



I must write one line to thank you for your very kind 

 letter, and to say that, after despatching my last note, it 

 suddenly occurred to me that I had been rude in calling one 

 of the provisions of your Bill " monstrous " or " absurd " — I 

 forget which. But when I wrote the expression it was 

 addressed to the bigots who, I believed, had forced you to a 

 compromise. I cannot understand what Dr. B. Sanderson 

 could have been about not to have objected with respect to the 

 clause of not demonstrating on animals rendered insensible. 

 I am extremely sorry that you have had trouble and vexation 

 on the subject. It is a most disagreeable and difficult one. 

 I am not personally concerned, as I never tried an experiment 

 on a living animal, nor am I a physiologist ; but I know 

 enough to see how ruinous it would be to stop all progress in 

 so grand a science as Physiology. I commenced the agitation 

 amongst the physiologists for this reason, and because I have 

 long felt very keenly on the question of useless vivisection, and 

 believed, though without any good evidence, that there was 

 not always, even in this country, care enough taken. Pray 

 forgive me this note, so much about myself. . . . 



Letter 768 To G. J. Romanes. 1 



Down, June 4th [1876]. 

 Your letter has made me as proud and conceited as ten 

 peacocks. 2 I am inclined to think that writing against the 

 bigots about vivisection is as hopeless as stemming a torrent 

 with a reed. Frank, who has just come here, and who 

 sputters with indignation on the subject, takes an opposite 



1 Published in Life of Romanes, p. 61, under 1876-77. 



2 This may perhaps refer to Darwin being elected the only honorary 

 member of the Physiological Society, a fact that was announced in a letter 

 from Romanes June 1st, 1876, published in the Life of Romanes, p. 50. 

 Dr. Sharpey was subsequently elected a second honorary member. 



