Vivisection 207 



unsettled on which the opinions of Huxley as expressed 

 then remain useful. The Commission of 1876, for in- 

 stance, dealt with vivisection, a matter on which the 

 conscience of the ordinary man is not yet at rest. Al- 

 though Huxley was intenselj^ interested in the problems 

 of physiology, and although at one time he hoped 

 to devote his life to them, fortune directed otherwise, 

 and the investigations for which he is famed did not 

 in any way involve the kind of experiments known as 

 vivisection. The greater part of his work was upon 

 the remains of creatures dead for thousands of years or 

 upon the lifeless skeletons of modern forms. On the 

 other hand, he was keenly interested in the progress of 

 physiological science, he had personal acquaintance 

 wutli most of the distinguished workers in physiology 

 of his time at home and abroad, and from this know- 

 ledge of their character and aspirations he was well 

 able to judge of the wholesale and reckless accusations 

 brought against them. He was a man full of the finest 

 humanity, with an unusual devotion to animals as pets, 

 and with knowledge of the degrees of pain involved in 

 experimenting on living creatures. He insisted strongly 

 on the necessity of limiting or abolishing pain, where- 

 ever it was possible ; he agreed that any experiments 

 which involved pain should not be permitted for the 

 purpose of demonstrating known elementary facts. 

 But, from his knowledge of the incalculable benefits 

 which had been gained from experimental research, 

 and from his confidence in those who conducted it, he 

 declined to give support to the misguided fanatics who 

 desired to make such experimental research a penal 

 offence, even when conducted by the most skilled ex- 

 perts for the highest purposes. 



Huxley contributed his share to the great questions 



