THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. jj-j 



great advance in the experimental study of the nervous system. 

 He first demonstrated, though in no thoroughly satisfactory 

 manner, the twofold function of the spinal roots. It is true that 

 Bell did say some things derogatory of physiological experiment 

 about the beginning of this century. But it is also true that his 

 actions speak louder than his words. By reference to his works, 

 we find that Bell made this great discovery in the only way pos- 

 sible viz., by means of vivisectional experiments. He actually 

 vivisected asses, kittens, rabbits, fowls, monkeys, and dogs, per- 

 forming the same experiments for which Magendie has been so 

 severely criticised.* Charles Bell was exceedingly sensitive upon 

 the point of causing pain to animals, as is shown by several pas- 

 sages in his works; and it is certainly a strong argument for the 

 necessity of vivisection that a man of his sensitive nature should 

 be compelled to resort to this method in order to demonstrate the 

 truth of his theories. It must be remembered that he had no 

 anaesthetics, and therefore his position can not apply to the 

 present discussion of the subject. Were he operating to-day, 

 with chloroform, ether, morphine, chloral, paraldehyde, cocaiDe, 

 and other anaesthetics at his disposal, he need have had no 

 twinges of conscience about the pain his experiments occasioned. 



Magendie completed Bell's work, placing it upon a firm basis 

 by means of experiments for which he has been accused of most 

 atrocious cruelty. It is sufficient to reply that Magendie, too, 

 worked before anaesthetics were discovered, and when people's 

 ideas about physical pain were very different from our ideas at 

 present. And Magendie was, to say the least, as oblivious to his 

 own suffering as he was to that of the animals he experimented 

 upon. When cholera broke out in France, in 1832, he went as a 

 volunteer into the center of the afflicted district, and afterward 

 served in the great cholera hospital, the Hotel Dieu, during the 

 epidemic in Paris, and for his heroism received the cross of the 

 Legion of Honor \ " The fiend Magendie." 



Take, for example, another great line of physiological work 

 than which few discoveries have been of more practical value to 

 human life. Upon a knowledge of the physiology of respiration 

 we build and ventilate, or ought to, at least, dwelling and school 

 houses, audience rooms, and hospitals. 



The first important discovery in this line was made by Sir 



* Charles Bell. Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain. London, 1811. Transcribed 

 by H. U. D., 1813. Also, Nervous System of the Human Body. London, 1830. 



f J. C. Palton. Magendie as a Physiologist. International Review, February, 1880, 

 p. 120. The story of Magendie's repentance and distrust of vivisection, shortly before his 

 death, has often been adduced against this method of research. After careful search 

 through all the accounts of Magendie's life (thirteen in number), Dalton is able to say that 

 there is no intimation of any ground for this idea, 

 vol. xlix. 60 



