NATURE 



321 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1876 



REPORT OF THE VIVISECTION COMMISSION 



NO one who examines this voluminous Report of the 

 Commission appointed some months ago to inquire 

 into " the practice of subjecting live animals to experi- 

 ments for scientific purposes/' can deny that the Commis- 

 sioners have done their work thoroughly, as they have 

 done it without delay. The Commissioners evidently 

 entered upon their important inquiry with the determina- 

 ;oa of discovering the whole truth as to the practice of 

 visection, and of eliciting the opinions and reasons not 

 nly of its advocates but of its most determined opponents, 

 mereglanceat the long list of names of the witnesses will 

 rve to assure anyone that the evidence which has been 

 obtained is the expression of the most weighty and trust- 

 worthy opinion on both sides, and both the advocates 

 and opponents of the practice must feel relieved that the 

 Commission was appointed and has done its work : the 

 former will be glad that the true condition of things is 

 now before the public, that the worst, so to speak, is 

 kno^\'n, and the latter that they now know definitely what 

 they have to contend against. 



The bulk cf the blue-book is of course occupied by the 

 evidence. Prefixed to this is the Report and recommen- 

 dations of the Commissioners, and in the Appendices are 

 contained various documents which throw light upon the 

 inquiry and enable the reader to learn exactly what has 

 been done in the matter up to the present time, and what 

 will be the starting-point of Parliament in discussing the 

 Report. We need do little more here than lay the Com- 

 missioners' recommendations before our readers. In their 

 Report they candidly discuss the varied methods and uses 

 of experimenting on living animals, the bearings of the evi- 

 dence elicited during the inquiry, as well as every possible 

 suggestion as to what legislative action ought to be taken 

 in reference to the matter. As might be expected from the 

 character of the men who compose the Commission, ever)' 

 point of importance is brought prominently out, the 

 subject is looked at all round, and from every point of 

 \'iew. Their recommendations, therefore, which they 

 give after briefly referring to the two Bills of last session, 

 will without doubt have great weight with all who take an 

 interest in the matter. They are as follows : — 



"What we should humbly recommend to Your Majesty 

 would be the enactment of a law by which experiments 

 upon living animals, whether for original research or for 

 demonstration, should be placed under the control of the 

 Secretary of State, who should have power to grant 

 licences to persons, and, when satisfied of the propriety 

 of doing so, to withdraw them. No other persons should 

 be permitted to perform experiments. The holders of 

 licences should be bound by conditions, and breach of the 

 conditions should entail the liability to forfeiture of the 

 licence ; the object of the conditions should be to ensure 

 that suffering should never be inflicted in any case in which 

 it could be avoided, and should be reduced to a minimum 

 where it could not be altogether avoided. This should be the 

 general scope of the conditions ; but their detailed applica- 

 tion should be left to be modified from time to time by the 

 minister responsible according to the dictates of experi- 

 ence. In the administration of the system generally, the 

 responsible minister would of course be guided by the 

 ■ opinion of advisers of competent knowledge and experi- 



VoL. XIII. — No. 330 



ence. Dr. Playfair's bill provided a machinery for the 

 purpose, and some arrangements of the kind proposed in 

 that measure would be necessary. But we think it is 

 inexpedient to divide the responsibihty of the Secretary 

 of State with that of any other persons by statutory enact- 

 ment, and we recommend that his advisers should be 

 from time to time selected and nominated by himself. 

 Their names should be made known to the profession and 

 the public. It may be found desirable that one of the 

 conditions to be attached to a licence should be that the 

 experiments should be performed in some particular 

 place ; but this is a detail which may vary with circum- 

 stances, and we think it ought not to be stereotyped by 

 statute. 



" The Secretary of State must have the most complete 

 power of efficient inspection and of obtaining full returns 

 and accurate records of all experiments made. Any place 

 in which experiments are performed must be registered 

 and open to efficient inspection. The appointment of an 

 inspector or inspectors wiU be necessary, and we have 

 seen that the analogy of the Anatomy Act has been 

 appealed to by many high authorities. It is to be 

 observed that the duties under that Act are of a nature 

 much more mechanical than those which will be required 

 in the present instance. The inspectors must be persons 

 of such character and position as to command the confi- 

 dence of the public no less than that of men of science. 



" Abuse of the power conferred by the licence must, of 

 course, render the holder liable to its withdrawal ; but 

 this will involve great disgrace ; and the withdrawal of 

 the hcence of an eminent man without real cause might 

 be a serious pubhc mischief. We have felt it necessary, 

 therefore, to consider what steps should be taken when 

 the question of such withdrawal may arise. We think 

 that the holder of a licence, when he shall receive notice 

 that the Secretary of State intends to withdraw it during 

 the period for which it has been granted, should be at 

 liberty to demand a public inquiry ; that this inquiry 

 should be held before one of the Judges of the Supreme 

 Court, with two competent assessors to be appointed by 

 the Secretary of State, the Court having the full power of 

 conducting it as a legal investigation by summoning and 

 swearing witnesses, issuing commissions, and so forth : — 

 that on the result of this inquiry, the Secretarj- of State 

 should determine whether the licence ought to be with- 

 drawn, and when he decides in the negative, should have 

 the power of giving the holder of the licence the reason- 

 able costs of his defence. 



" Magistrates ought to be empowered, on cause shown, 

 to authorise the police to enter and search the premises of 

 persons suspected of performing experiments without a 

 licence, and the performance of such experiments with- 

 out a licence should be penal. 



"It has been suggested that cases may occur in which 

 an urgent necessity may have occasioned an experiment 

 when there has been no licensed person within reach, and 

 it has not been possible to apply for a licence ; such as a 

 sudden case of suspected poisoning, arising, perhaps, in 

 a remote place, when the experiment has been reasonably 

 considered indispensable, for the purpose either of cure 

 or of medico-legal investigation. Boiidjide cases of this 

 kind ought evidently to be free from the risk of vexatious 

 prosecution, and this can be secured by vesting in the 

 Secretary of State the power of putting a veto on a pro- 

 secution. 



" We believe that by such a measure as we have now 

 proposed the progress of medical knowledge may be 

 made compatible with the just requirements of humanity. 

 In zeal for physiolog>', the country of Han-ey, Hunter, 

 Bell, and Darwin may weU endure the test of comparison. 

 We trust that Your Majest>''s Government and the Par- 

 liament of this kingdom will recognise the claim of the 

 lower animals to be treated with humane consideration — 

 and will establish the right of the community to be 



