166 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VI 



for those who, carried away by still more intense dislike, 

 would utterly prohibit these experiments. 



But it has been my duty to give prolonged and careful 

 attention to this subject, and putting natural sympathy 

 aside, to try and get at the rights and wrongs of the 

 business from a higher point of view, namely, that of 

 humanity, which "is often very different from that of 

 emotional sentiment. 



I ask myself suppose you knew that by inflicting 

 prolonged pain on 100 rabbits you could discover a way 

 to the extirpation of leprosy, or consumption, or locomotor 

 ataxy, or of suicidal melancholia among human beings, 

 dare you refuse to inflict that pain ? Now I am quite 

 unable to say that^I dare. That sort of daring would 

 seem to me to be extreme moral cowardice, to involve 

 gross inconsistency. 



For the advantage and protection of society, we all 

 agree to inflict pain upon man pain of the most pro- 

 longed and acute character in our prisons, and on our 

 battlefields. If England were invaded, we should have 

 no hesitation about inflicting the maximum of suffering 

 upon our invaders for no other object than our own good. 



But if the good of society and of a nation is a sufficient 

 plea for inflicting pain on men, I think it may suffice us 

 for experimenting on rabbits or dogs. 



At the same time, I think that a heavy moral re- 

 sponsibility rests on those who perform experiments of 

 the second kind. 



The wanton infliction of pain on man or beast is a 

 crime ; pity is that so many of those who (as I think 

 rightly) hold this view, seem to forget that the criminality 

 lies in the wantonness and not in the act of inflicting 

 pain per se. I am, sir, yours faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



So far back as 1870 a committee had been appointed 

 by the British Association, and reported upon the 



