5G Teachings of Thomas Huxley 



things. ... I ask myself — suppose you 

 know that by inflicting pain on 100 rabbits you 

 could discover a way to the extirpation of 

 leprosy or consumption or locomotor ataxia 

 among human beings, dare you refuse to in- 

 flict that pain ? I am quite unable to say that 

 I dare." 



With the use of anesthesia many of the ob- 

 jections to vivisection even among scientific 

 men themselves gave way, for it is now possible 

 to conduct such experiments as any ordinary 

 surgical procedure would be carried out — en- 

 tirely without the knowledge of the patient. 

 Huxley considered quite rightly, "That wan- 

 ton infliction of pain on man or beast is a 

 crime, the pity is that so many of those who 

 (as I think rightly) hold this view seem to 

 forget that the criminality lies in the wanton- 

 ness and not in the act of inflicting pain per se." 

 He foresaw that unless the fanaticism of the 

 humanizers overpowered the voice of philan- 

 thropy, and love of domestic animals super- 

 seded the love of one's neighbors, experimental 

 biology would, in course of time, place pre- 

 ventive medicine as well as practical thera- 

 peutics upon a high plane of usefulness. This 

 forecast has certainlv been verified bv subse- 

 quent developments; but even now the things 

 that have been done are as nothing to those 

 that will be done within the next twenty years. 

 Even questions of right and wrong have their 



