vinsECTiox. 239 



describe as inhuman. Professor Owen shows that even 

 inquiries, not necessarily directed at their outset to 

 pain-preventing discoveries, have led to the relief of 

 an enormous amount of human suffering and untimely 

 death. As a striking example, consider the case of 

 John Hunter's researches into the annual growth and 

 shedding of the antlers of deer. A buck having been 

 put at his disposal, Hunter placed a ligature around 

 the carotid artery supplying the growing antler, on 

 which the pulsations of the formative ' velvet ' ceased, 

 and the antler began to cool. The buck was released, 

 and examined a week later. To Hunter's surprise the 

 velvet had recovered its warmth, and the growth was 

 proceeding as usual. The buck was thereupon killed 

 (a ' fearful piece of cruelty,' though the annual hunting 

 and killing of scores for venison is a < noble sport '). 

 He found the canal of the carotid had been obliterated ; 

 but sundry ordinary minute branches sent off below 

 (i.e., between the heart and the ligature) had enlarged, 

 had carried the blood to other capillaries communi- 

 cating with the carotid above the ligature, and the 

 enlargement of these previously inconspicuous vessels 

 had restored the supply to the cold antler, and with it 

 the power of growth. Take now the other side of the 

 picture. Not long after, a coachman, suffering from 

 popliteal aneurism (caused by the pressure of the hard 

 margin of the box-seat on the vessels of the ham), lies 

 at Hunter's (now St. George's) Hospital, awaiting am- 

 putation of the leg, to which operation he has given 

 his consent. Hunter says to him, * If you will let me 



