DARWINISM AND VIVISECTION 223 



vivisection. It would be hard to say on which of 

 these two topics he wrote at the greatest length. 



Certain it is that, of all the forms of cruelty against 

 which he carried on such a long and determined 

 crusade, there was none which he held in greater 

 loathing and abhorrence, none which, in his con- 

 viction, was fraught with more dire consequences, 

 than that which is involved in the term vivisec- 

 tion. It would be impossible to describe his feel- 

 ings with regard to this practice ; no words seemed 

 strong enough to express what he thought about 

 it, and therefore no trouble was too great for him 

 to take in his endeavour to influence public opinion 

 against it. He looked upon it as something infi- 

 nitely worse than any ordinary cruelty ; in fact, 

 there was nothing else to which it could be com- 

 pared. How could it possibly be otherwise with 

 him ? Towards every animal he had a kindly 

 feeling ; nothing was beneath his notice ; for him 

 everything had its place in the world, each its use, 

 however humble and obscure ; all were God's crea- 

 tures, all wonderful, all to be loved and cared for. 

 To be in any way a party to the torturing and ex- 

 perimenting upon any one of these was in his eyes 

 to descend to the lowest depths of degradation and 

 cruelty. Rather would he have died a hundred 

 deaths than have had his life prolonged, if such a 

 thing were possible, by any discovery that might be 

 made through the abominations of the vivisecting- 

 room. 



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