xin PREVENTIVE MEDICINE 325 



through the introduction of stringent aseptic methods, it was 

 still further reduced to 4 per 1,000. In the same way in the 

 York Road Lying-in Hospital in this neighbourhood, in 1838, 

 26 per cent, of the patients died from this complaint. The 

 hospital was often closed, but was re-opened in 1879 on strict 

 antiseptic principles. The result has been that there has been 

 only one case in three years, or less than I per 1,000. I might 

 continue to quote an almost endless number of cases in which 

 humanity has benefited to an undreamt extent by experi- 

 ments on animals, but now I will content myself by remind- 

 ing the House of the most remarkable of all, namely, the cure 

 and prevention of that most horrible of all maladies, hydro- 

 phobia, by the discoveries of Pasteur. Not one of these 

 cases of cure could have been effected without experiments, 

 for the most part painless, on animals, which the amendment 

 now before the House asks us practically to discontinue. 

 But, Sir, it has been said by the opponents of these Acts that 

 animals are thus sacrificed to the selfish interests of man. 

 Such a statement only shows an entire ignorance of the fact, 

 because the knowledge obtained by these experiments has 

 been of the greatest value to animals themselves. Take the 

 case of anthrax. Through the labours of M. Pasteur again, 

 we know that that disease Russian cattle plague can now 

 be actually overcome by inoculation, and that every year 

 hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle are now saved by 

 inoculation from a painful death. I trust that those who 

 think of supporting the reduction of the Vote will bear in 

 mind that to stop those experiments will be to arrest the 

 progress of scientific and modern medicine and surgery, and 

 that by voting for the reduction they attempt to throw a most 

 undeserved slur on the character of a high-minded, con- 

 scientious, and eminent man. 



In 1890 a memorial expressing the high appreciation 

 of the services Pasteur had rendered to mankind was 

 presented to him, in the form of an album, through the 

 exertions of Lady Priestley. I brought it down to the 

 House of Commons and obtained a large number of 

 signatures, including that of Mr. Gladstone. 



On a Sunday afternoon in March of the above year 

 I delivered a lecture at St. George's Hall, Langham 

 Place, on Pasteur and his discoveries, and mentioned 

 that no fewer than 200 fellow-countrymen had crossed 



