DECLINING YEARS (1873-1893) 285 



call throughout the land for the teaching of huma- 

 nity. In a certain district from which an application 

 was received this was made plain by the following 

 testimony of a schoolmaster : " Since my appoint- 

 ment here I have noticed such determined and 

 wanton cruelty towards birds that I have thought 

 over and over again what could I do to remove 

 such unkindness. I was told not long since that 

 a boy had caught twenty-five birds under a sieve, 

 and then wrung their necks only for sport ! Bird- 

 killing chasing with stones is an everyday amuse- 

 ment." 



The horrors of the growing practice of experi- 

 mentalising on living animals were never long out 

 of his mind during this period of his life. 



In March 1877 he issued one of his feeling appeals 

 to the public in support of an address to be pre- 

 sented to Mr. Secretary Cross, then at the head of 

 the Home Office, in favour of the total suppression 

 of vivisection, or, as he worded it, " The purport of 

 the address will be to urge the Government to sup- 

 port a Bill for the entire prevention of the unhal- 

 lowed, degrading, and unmanly practice referred 

 to." It had been found that the Act passed in the 

 previous session was insufficient for the purpose for 

 which it was designed, although no doubt it was 

 generally looked upon as a step in the right direc- 

 tion by those opposed to vivisection. Accordingly, 

 continues the circular, " I ask you in the name of 

 God's dumb creatures, they being unable to ask 

 you themselves, to sign and return to me the address 



