324 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



On May 3Oth, 1889, I made the following remarks 

 in the House of Commons with regard to vivisection 

 and to Pasteur : 



I rise to oppose the amendment, and I do so, in the first 

 place, because I believe that the Acts referred to are worked 

 honourably and honestly by all the men of science who obtain 

 their licences or certificates under them, and that the inspec- 

 tion and registration are carefully done. I was glad to learn 

 from my hon. friend [Mr. J. E. Ellis] that he does not object 

 to the Acts if they are properly carried out ; but I think that 

 is not altogether the case with many of those who speak on 

 the question. A great number of those who are agitating on 

 the matter desire the entire abolition of vivisection, that is, of 

 experiments on living animals whether effected under 

 anaesthetics or not. I believe those experiments are of the 

 very greatest value, and both medicine and surgery have 

 highly benefited from them, both in this country and abroad. 

 They are experiments which give but little pain to animals, 

 but are conducted under such restrictions and with such care 

 that the animals do not suffer. My hon. friend mentioned 

 the name of Professor Ferrier. The results following on the 

 experiments made by that gentleman have, in the hands of 

 many distinguished surgeons, and especially of Mr. Victor 

 Horsley, actually effected the alleviation of one of the most 

 dreadful diseases to which flesh is heir the disease of 

 epilepsy. Professor Ferrier's experiments proved that epi- 

 lepsy is caused by the irritation of the surface of the brain 

 as opposed to that of its mass. And it is now possible, 

 solely owing to these experiments, to localise in an epileptic 

 patient the actual seat of the pressure on the brain. In many 

 cases a portion of the skull has been removed and the 

 epilepsy has been cured. In fact, in the same way, owing to 

 previous experiments on animals, a diseased kidney can now 

 be removed with ease, and thus the life of the patient saved. 

 There is not a page in any manual of physiology of which 

 the principles laid down are not in some way connected with, 

 or dependent upon, these experiments on animals. Then 

 again, there is no doubt that the principles of antiseptic 

 surgery, which have been laid down by Lister, have been 

 ascertained by experiments of this kind. In the early years 

 of the 'forties the deaths in the Vienna Lying-in Hospital 

 from puerperal fever were 92 per 1,000. In 1863, in con- 

 sequence of the adoption of an antiseptic treatment, the 

 death-rate had diminished to 13 per 1,000, and in 1881, 



