PROLEGOMENA 5 



which gradually reawakened into interest in one's surroundings 

 cannot be set aside. The nurse says that during that interval 

 knife, saw, and cautery were busy at their work. Her story is 

 accepted, but it is not believed. All physiological operations 

 are conducted under anaesthetics. In by far the larger number 

 the experiment is continued until life terminates, under anaes- 

 thetics. The only ground upon which an objection to vivi- 

 section can be based is the ground that it involves the infliction 

 of pain, and it is with regard to this that the greatest mis- 

 apprehension exists in the public mind. Only in experiments 

 which have for their object the study of the effects of the 

 removal of a certain part, the diversion of a duct, the elimina- 

 tion of the control of a particular nerve, is there any possibility, 

 under existing conditions, that an animal will suffer. In such 

 experiments as these, observations cannot commence until 

 after the animal has recovered. The operation is conducted 

 under anaesthetics, and with the utmost precautions, to prevent 

 any disturbance of the animal's general health. The injury is 

 in almost all cases of a comparatively limited nature, and it is 

 certain that it involves very little pain to the animal when it 

 has recovered from its anaesthesia, since, thanks this time to 

 aseptic surgery, there is no inflammation or other secondary 

 trouble. 



The field of physiology embraces the phenomena exhibited 

 by all living things, whether plants or animals. The vegetable 

 physiologist works in one part, the comparative physiologist 

 in another. The work of the human physiologist is more 

 limited in scope. Yet there are few problems relating to Man's 

 mechanism concerning which the physiologist can have direct 

 knowledge. His theories are based upon the results obtained 

 by experimenting upon animals. 



