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Necessity of physiological research. 79 



between two alternatives, and this is the case with 

 experiments upon living creatures, either such experi- 

 ments must be made, or the wholesale slaughter of 

 men and other animals, by pestilences, epidemics, 

 small-pox, foot and mouth disease, &c., must continue. 

 Many of the properties of living bodies, like those of 

 dead ones, can only be ascertained by means of ex- 

 periments, no other course is possible ; and the 

 knowledge so obtained enables us not only to prolong 

 the lives but also to alleviate the sufferings of all 

 kinds of living creatures. Nearly all our medical and 

 surgical knowledge has been obtained by observation 

 and study, either of the results of experiments made 

 by ourselves, or by the course of nature for us ; and 

 the former is often attended by immeasurably less 

 pain and expence than the latter. No one who has 

 ever made in a proper manner new experiments, 

 would venture to assert that valuable knowledge is 

 not gained by them ; and this statement is as correct 

 of experiments in physiology as in all the other 

 sciences. 



The total amount of pain inflicted upon animals by 

 vivisection experiments in this country is infinites- 

 imally small because, firstly, the proportion of ex- 

 perimentalists in so-called "vivisection," does not 

 amount to one person in one million of our inhab- 

 itants : secondly, students cannot be induced to enter 

 upon scientific research in physiology, because such 

 labour is unrewarded, either by enabling them to obtain 

 certificates, degrees, or money. Whatever pain also, 



