NATURE 



21 



THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1^75 



LORD HARTISMERBS VIVISECTION BILL 



THE Bill brought forward in the Upper House by 

 Lord Hartismere for regulating the practice of 

 Vivisection deserves special attention on account of its 

 being the first important legislative attempt to restrict the 

 prosecution of physiological research. 



It enacts that it shall not be lawful for anyone to per- 

 form a vivisection except in a place which is registered in 

 pursuance of the proposed Act, the registration being in 

 such form and under the management of such persons as 

 the Secretary of State shall appoint. The registration 

 certificate is to be renewed once a year ; it may be can- 

 celled at any time on its being proved that any provision 

 of the Act has been contravened, and the place registered 

 may be visited at any time by any inspector of anatomy. 

 Complete anaesthesia is compulsory, and curare is not to 

 be deemed to be an anaesthetic. The Secretary of State 

 may grant special licenses for the performance of vivisec- 

 tions in which anaesthetics are not employed ; there shall 

 be paid in respect of every such license a sum not exceed- 

 ing ten pounds, and each license is to continue in force 

 for six months. 



In the framing of this Bill there is a serious misrepre- 

 sentation of the true requirements of the case, The 

 source of error lies in the fact that it is taken for 

 granted that there is only a single class of physiological 

 workers. Such, however, is not the case ; there are two 

 distinct classes, and although we agree with the tenor of 

 the Bill as far as one class is concerned, we are certain 

 that it would so severely affect the other that its results 

 would be seriouslyjdetrimental to the prosecution of physio- 

 logical research in this country. 



Among ourselves there are several scientific men who 

 devote part of their life to the study of the problems of 

 the vital mechanism. Some do so from the inherent 

 interest of the subject ; others from a desire to obtain a 

 further insight into pathology and disease generally. In 

 the course of their investigations it is now and then abso- 

 lutely essential for the completion of a Hne of argument, 

 or for the acquisition of the knowledge of the collateral 

 phenomena attending some previously recorded result, 

 that an experiment or experiments should be performed 

 on a living animaL Those whose mental development leads 

 them to conduct investigations of this character are fre- 

 quently peculiarly unwilling to do so in pubhc institutions. 

 It is their spare minute?, when they are entirely their own 

 masters, that they employ in their favourite study. Are 

 they to be compelled, against their natural dispositions 

 either to obtain an official license for the performance of 

 these experiments on their own premises, or, as an alter- 

 native, conduct them in some previously specially licensed 

 establishment which is under the control of others ? The 

 necessity for such a method of procedure would deter 

 many an excellent worker from commencing investiga- 

 tions which he recognises to be so much impeded by 

 le^al restrictions. There might as well be a tax on 

 astronomers directing their telescopes to any special 

 planet or to the moon. The public may feel certain 

 that students of the class to which we refer will never 

 go beyond the limits of the innate laws of sympathy 

 Vol. XII. — No. 289 



present in all civilised humanity. Such do the most 

 valuable work in a scientific point of view ; and any legis- 

 lative measure which in any way affects them injuriously, 

 either by rendering the whole research apparently too 

 formidable at the outset, or by the introduction of un- 

 pleasant details during its prosecution, ought most stre- 

 nuously to be resisted. The power of turning to a prac- 

 tical end the results of inductive reasoning is the basis 

 of the British nature. Inductive research cannot be had 

 for money ; it is always a labour of love ; it is not fair to 

 put impediments in the way of it. 



The class of physiologists to whom legislative restric- 

 tions with regard to vivisection do apply, is the teachers. 

 There is no doubt that those who assert that the perfor- 

 mance of vivisectional demonstration is unnecessary will 

 have the sympathy of the majority. A fact may be learned 

 from books or by practical demonstration. As far as 

 natural science goes, the extra time which has to be ex- 

 pended in obtaining the results practically is generally 

 quite made up for by the accessory details introduced, 

 which arc many of them omitted in written or verbal 

 descriptions. Observation is a far more sound basis 

 on which to start fresh work than the knowledge acquired 

 from books alone. The student should therefore, where 

 nothing counter indicates, have the opportunity of repeat- 

 ing, on his own account, the experiments he reads of. In 

 the case of practical physiology, however, another consi- 

 deration has to be introduced. Here the subjects of 

 experiment are sentient beings, and the question comes 

 to be whether the advantages of the practical verifi- 

 cation of fully described phenomena which involve pain 

 are counterbalanced by the injustice done in the produc- 

 tion of the pain itself. We think not, and are therefore 

 fully in favour of legislative restrictions on the powers 

 of those who wish to employ living animals for the pur- 

 pose of demonstration, even where anaesthetics are em- 

 ployed, because there is a tendency among those who are 

 in the habit of repeating experiments to neglect those 

 parts of them which are not absolutely necessary. But 

 any measure which in any way impedes original work, as 

 does the Bill before us, ought, in our opinion, to be strongly 

 opposed. 



GEIKIE'S ''LIFE OF MURCHISON"* 

 II. 

 Life of Sir Roderick I. Miirchisofi, Bart., F.R.S. etc. 

 Based on his Jo7irnals and Letters. With Notices of his 

 Scientific Contemporaries atid a Sketch of the Rise and 

 Growth of Palccozoic Geology in Britain. By Archi- 

 bald Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S., Director of H.M. Geological 

 Survey of Scotland, and Murchison Professor of Geology 

 and Mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh. 2 vols. 

 Illustrated with Portraits and Woodcuts. (London : 

 John Murray, 1875.) 



MR. MALLET, in a memoir published in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions (vol. 163, p. 147), which has 

 attracted attention as much for the boldness of its tone 

 as for anything else, has laid down the dictum that no 

 sound progress can be made in geology unless the investi- 

 gator be also mathematician, chemist, and physicist. 

 Now, Murchison was none of these, yet he would be a 



* Continued from p. y 



