Teachings of Thomas Huxley 55 



mental 1st, lie studied to find out the best, yet 

 did not allow lrimself to force his convictions 

 upon those who could not receive them with 

 open mind. 



THE QUESTION OF VIVISECTION. 



Among a certain set of people the use of ani- 

 mals for experimental jjurposes will always be 

 looked upon with horror. In these days one 

 does not hear so much against the practice of 

 vivisection as formerly, because the public has 

 come to understand the tremendous advantages 

 science has obtained through analogy in the 

 study of disease and of the application of these 

 ideas to the saving of human life ; but in Hux- 

 ley's time the war waged fiercely between the 

 philozoics and the philosophers. Quite natur- 

 ally Huxley took the argument for the scien- 

 tific side, although by nature he was an animal 

 lover. But it was very easy to show how 

 shallow was the reasoning which did not cry 

 out against paining animals for sport or food, 

 yet tried in every way to prevent their use in 

 carrying forward biological investigation. He 

 showed how T greatly prohibition would hamper 

 the progress of medicine and surgery and de- 

 clared that "Not a single one , of the great 

 truths of modern physiology has been estab- 

 lished otherwise than by experiment on living 



