Ch. XV.] VIVISECTION, 1881. 287 



which became a decided enjoyment to him. With the general 

 public the book was not markedly successful, but many of his 

 friends recognised its merits. Sir J. D. Hooker was one of 

 these, and to liim my father wrote, " Your praise of the Life of 

 Dr. D. has pleased mo exceedingly, for I despised my work, and 

 thought myself a perfect fool to have undertaken such a job." 

 To Mr. Galton, too, he wrote, November 14 : — 

 " I am extremely glad that you approve of the little Life of our 

 grandfather, for I have been repenting that I ever undertook 

 it, as the work was quite beyond my tether." 



THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. 



Something has already been said of my father's strong 

 feeling with regard to suffering * both in man and beast. It 

 was indeed one of the strongest feelings in his nature, and was 

 exemplified in matters small and great, in his sympathy with 

 the educational miseries of dancing dogs, or his horror at the 

 sufferings of slaves. 



The remembrance of screams, or other sounds heard in 

 Brazil, when he was powerless to interfere with what he 

 believed to be the torture of a slave, haunted him for years, 

 especially at night. In smaller matters, where he could inter- 

 fere, he did so vigorously. He returned one day from his walk 

 pale and faint from having seen a horse ill-used, and from the 

 agitation of violently remonstrating with the man. On another 

 occasion he saw a horse-breaker teaching his son to ride ; the 

 little boy was frightened and the man was rough ; my father 

 stopped, and jumping out of the carriage reproved the man in 

 no measured terms. 



One other little incident may be mentioned, showing that his 

 humanity to animals was well known in his own neighbourhood. 

 A visitor, driving from Orpington to Down, told the cabman to 

 go faster. " Why," said the man, " if I had whipped the horse 



* He once made an attempt to free a patient in a mad-house, who (as 

 he wrongly supposed) was sane. He was in correspondence with the 

 gardener at the asylum, and on one occasion he found a letter from the 

 patient enclosed with one from the gardener. The letter was rational in 

 tone and declared that the writer was sane and wrongfully confined. 



My father wrote to the Lunacy Commissioners (without explaining the 

 source of his information) and in due time heard that the man had been 

 visited by the Commissioners, and that he was certainly insane. Some 

 time afterward the patient was discharged, and wrote to thank my father 

 for his interference, adding that he had undoubtedly been insane when he 

 wrote his former letter. 



