J72 



NATURE 



\June 2 2, 1876 



the time of Sydenham has been noticed, but never ex- 

 plained, in which diseases of spreading type extend 

 uncontrolled when once they are started on their course. 

 In the artificial negative atmosphere which I produced in 

 the manner described above, I observed that dead animal 

 and vegetable substances underwent rapid decomposition, 

 and that slight wounds on living bodies became foetid. 



There followed upon these observations other series, in 

 which the effect of the forces of heat and electricity were 

 tried in order to determine whether they would modify 

 the condition of the negative oxygen in respect to its life- 

 sustaining power. The result of these inquiries was to 

 prove that cold added to the negative effect and quickened 

 the narcotism, while a raised temperature, a temperature 

 of 75" F., delayed the narcotism. I also discovered that 

 the passage of electrical sparks through the negative gas 

 restored it to its full activity. 



In yet another series of inquiries oxygen, under the 

 influence of the forces of heat and electricity, was rendered 

 active until its sustaining power was destroyed by an 

 opposite process, viz., by the activity with which it entered 

 into combination with the blood. In this manner the 

 action of ozone was observed on animal bodies, and the 

 quickened state of the circulation and over-action which 

 the oxygen in this active state produces were defined. 

 The local action of ozonized air on the air-passages and 

 nostrils in the human subject was tested on Dr. Wood 

 and myself, and the peculiar catarrh and headache which 

 follow the inhalation of ozonized air were described from 

 our own personal experiences. 



The whole of these inquiries on the effects of differing 

 physical conditions of oxygen were full of the most useful 

 practical information in reference, if not actually to 

 disease, to the mode in which surrounding atmospheric 

 conditions modify the course of disease. They indicated 

 how men and animals living in the large atmospheric sea 

 are influenced by the action of the great forces of nature 

 on the vital oxygen. They have taught me so much that 

 I could, if I had the means, build a hospital with such 

 appliances for modifying the air, that the course of some 

 diseases might be governed towards recovery by the 

 simple management of the physical conditions of the 

 atmospheric oxygen. In a future and more advanced 

 day of science, this method, the basic principles of which 

 are here sketched out, will be an approved and positive 

 method of treatment. Even now, under the greatest dis- 

 advantages, from want of organised plans, I have been 

 able to render useful service to the sick from the expe- 

 rience gained by the experimentation. 



Benjamin W. Richardson 

 {To be continued^ 



THE CRUELTY TO ANIMALS BILL 



IN the House of Lords the Government " Vivisection 

 Bill " was discussed in a full Committee on Tuesday. 



The Marquis of Lansdowne began by a very temperate 

 remonstrance against the Government going so far 

 beyond the recommendations of the Royal Commission 

 on the subject. His speech (which is fairly reported in 

 the Times) is by far the best for knowledge and for sense 

 that has yet been made on the Bill, but the provision 

 against which he especially protested — the licensing of 

 places as well as of persons — though warmly supported by 

 Lord Kimberley, still remains part of the Bill. This pro- 

 vision scarcely affects physiologists as such, but may be 

 a means of serious annoyance and hindrance to strictly 

 medical experiments, on, for instance, the contagion of 

 disease or the action of drugs, and would have made the 

 experiments by which Jenner freed the world from the 

 plague of small- pox impossible. 



On the first clause Lord Carnarvon stated that the title 

 will be altered from " An Act to Prevent Cruel Experi- 

 ments upon Animals" to "An Act to Amend the Law 

 relating to Cruelty to Animals," i.e., the Bill no longer 



pretends to prevent alleged cruelty by scientific men in 

 this country, inasmuch as the charge has net been in a 

 single instance maintained, and only provides that inflic- 

 tion of pain on an animal shall not be screened by the 

 excuse of a scientific object, if the delinquent does not 

 hold a certificate from the Secretary of State that he is a 

 competent person to conduct experiments on animals 

 with all possible humanity and with ability to make them 

 useful. 



After some desultory conversation on the definition of 

 the word " animal " (in which one Minister of the Crown 

 committed himself to the opinion that some creatures can 

 feel when their heads are off), the first important amend- 

 ment was moved by Lord Rayleigh, supported by Lord 

 Cardwell, and accepted, after discussion, by the Ministry. 

 The Bill now, therefore, actually recognises the pursuit of 

 knowledge as equally worthy of respect with that of 

 medicine, and both as entitled to some small share of the 

 immunity accorded to the pursuit of wealth or of amuse- 

 ment. In other words^. while the members of the House 

 of Lords have all their lives been vivisecting their animals 

 without anaesthetics for fim, they are now pleased to 

 allow physiologists to do the same under many limit- 

 ations for the advancement of science. This admission 

 was actually opposed by Lord Coleridge in a speech which 

 was forensic and sentimental in the worst sense of the 

 words. 



In the fifth clause, exempting cats and dogs from all 

 experiments (even when painless) if undertaken for phy- 

 siological or medical purposes, the Government accepted 

 the amendment of the Earl of Harrowby, to include horses, 

 asses, and mules under the same provision ; but admitted 

 a proviso for these animals being available on special 

 certificate from the Secretary of State when absolutely 

 necessary for some special investigation. On this clause 

 the Earl of Airlie made a sensible speech, but he was 

 not supported by the peers on the Royal Commission, 

 whose report was implicitly condemned. The other 

 clauses v/ere rapidly run through, the Earl of Portsmouth 

 making a successful attempt to obtain some recognition 

 of the necessity of studying the diseases of animals as 

 well as of man. The absurd regulation which, appa- 

 rently by an oversight, subjected registered and inspected 

 laboratories to the police visitation intended to prevent 

 experiments in unregistered places, was amended without 

 discussion, and the Bill is now probably in the form in 

 which it will be laid on the table of the House of 

 Commons. 



Some of its most glaring contradictions and absurdities 

 have been remedied ; and, if worked by a reasonable 

 Home Secretary, competent inspectors, and physiologists 

 as humane as the ten or twelve gentlemen who now possess 

 laboratories in the three kingdoms, it will probably do 

 good. But the whole discussion shows the folly of legis- 

 lating to satisfy unreasoning clamour, and the hopeless- 

 ness of Parliament dealing in detail with a subject of 

 which almost all its members are profoundly ignorant. 



The reasonable plan would have been to register labo- 

 ratories, and give certificates to persons duly recom- 

 mended ; to inspect them carefully ; to withdraw the 

 licence on any abuse being proved ; and then to extend 

 " Martin's Act " so as to apply to all cruelty to animals, 

 whether domestic or wild, whether performed with a bad 

 object or a good one, so long as the delinquent did not 

 hold a certificate. This would have been in accordance 

 with the recommendations of the Royal Commission, 

 would have given far less trouble to Home Secretaries 

 and to physiologists, and would have been a more effectual 

 provision against cruelty. But Parliament has nothing 

 important to do, the Government are in want of popular 

 applause, and very few have the patience or the candour 

 to learn the true state of the ^case'; so that we must be 

 content to hope that the Bill will do less harm than was 

 at first inevitable. 



