74 



NATURE 



[May 28, 1903 



the author has discarded his bizarre hypothesis that 

 the black cloud consists of *' carbon gases " produced 

 by the distillation of beds of asphalt in Tertiary de- 

 posits beneath the volcano. He is now of the same 

 opinion as other scientific men, viz., that the main 

 constituents of the cloud were steam, hot dust and 

 sulphurous acid. We can hardly pass without remark 

 his extraordinary calculations of the amount of dust 

 ejected by Montagne Pel^e during the latter part of 

 1902. He arrives at the conclusion that 480 millions 

 of cubic feet of solid sediment have been discharged 

 every hour, and is inclined to believe that this is an 

 under-estimate. So far at least as regards that period 

 when we were in Martinique in July, this is a wild 

 exaggeration. For hours at a time the volcano emitted 

 hardly a puff of steam ; a casual visitor might never 

 have suspected that the deep gully near the summit 

 led into the crater ; the amount of dust discharged was 

 negligible. Yet this was the period immediately 

 preceding and immediately following the eruption of 

 July 9, which was one of the most important erup- 

 tions of last summer. When Prof. Heilprin adds, 

 " We ask ourselves the questions — What becomes of 

 the void that is formed in the interior? What form 

 of new catastrophe does it invite? " we seem to hear 

 the echo of the dire predictions which resounded in 

 the colonial journals about twelve months ago. 



John S. Flett, 



EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS. 

 Experiments on Animals. By Stephen Paget. Pp. 

 xvi + 387. New and revised edition. (London : 

 Murray, 1903.) Price 65. 



A BOOK which reaches a second edition in two 

 years can do so only in response to some distinct 

 demand, and such a demand is in itself no little recom- 

 mendation as to its merits. The author of the book, 

 Mr. Stephen Paget, was for twelve years secretary to 

 the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by 

 Research, and it was therefore his business " to know 

 something about experiments on animals, and to 

 follow the working of the (Vivisection) Act of 1876." 

 He is therefore to a peculiar degree competent to 

 write a book dealing with these subjects, and it is a 

 matter for congratulation that the council of the 

 Association above mentioned decided that the book 

 should be written with a view to general reading. 

 Though in this present edition all references to anti- 

 vivisection societies and their methods are very wisely 

 omitted, yet the obvious purpose of the book is to 

 combat the misleading statements which these socie- 

 ties have disseminated broadcast amongst the unin- 

 structed public, and to afford information concerning 

 the results achieved by such experiments on animals, 

 whereby the public may be enabled to judge for them- 

 selves as to the claims of the anti-vivisectors. To 

 quote Lord Lister, who writes an introduction to this 

 volume, 



" The action of these well-meaning persons is 

 based upon ignorance. They allow that man is per- 

 mitted to inflict pain upon the lower animals when 



NO. 1752, VOL. 68] 



some substantial advantage is to be gained; but they 

 deny that any good has ever resulted from the re- 

 searches which they condemn." 



Mr. Paget 's object is therefore to convey to the 

 general reader some idea of the inestimable advantages 

 which have accrued to medical science from experi- 

 mental research on animals. In the closing pages of 

 the book, moreover, he points out that the vast 

 majority of the experiments carried out at the present 

 day in Great Britain involve no pain at all to the 

 animals operated upon. The comparatively few 

 animals subjected to painful experiment 



" cannot be compared with the same number of horses, 

 cattle, or sheep mutilated by breeders and farmers ; for 

 these mutilations are done, some of them, without any 

 anaesthetic. They cannot be compared with the same 

 number of pheasants or rabbits badly wounded, but 

 not killed, in sport ; for the animals thus wounded re- 

 ceive no subsequent care, and, if they are in pain, 

 nobody puts them out of it." 



To come to the actual contents of the book, we find 

 that Mr, Paget devotes more than 200 pages to the 

 consideration of experiments in bacteriology, but only 

 84 pages to experiments in physiology. It is to be 

 regretted that the subject which forms the foundation 

 of all medical science should be treated so cursorily, 

 but in excuse it may be admitted that the practical 

 importance of much physiological work is indirect, 

 whilst that of bacteriological work is obvious and 

 immediate. 



In his account of experiments in physiology, Mr. 

 Paget gives a concise risumi of certain chapters in 

 the history of physiology. The circulation of the 

 blood is treated rather more fully than other subjects, 

 though Harvey's work receives but four pages of de- 

 scription and quotation. In the chapter on gastric 

 juice, Mr. Paget very pertinently refers to the well- 

 known case of Alexis St. Martin, In whom a permanent 

 gastric fistula was produced by a gun-shot wound. 

 Yet in spite of the numerous experiments made upon 

 this man by Dr. Beaumont, no pain was experienced. 

 Presumably, therefore, artificially produced fistulae in 

 animals are equally painless. In the chapter upon the 

 nervous system, the important results obtained by 

 Galen are described, and it Is pointed out that the men 

 who followed after him, though they worshipped his 

 name, missed the whole meaning of his work through 

 their neglect of the experimental method which he em- 

 ployed. 



In his pathological chapters Mr. Paget gives a brief 

 account of Inflammation and suppuration, and then 

 passes on to serum therapeutics. As the book is 

 admittedly for general readers, it is a pity that no 

 general introduction to this subject is given. The 

 meaning of antitoxins and their method of prepara- 

 tion are nowhere described. The various chapters 

 adduce a very copious body of facts as to the cure of 

 diseases by serum-therapy and preventive inoculation, 

 but the absolute necessity for experiments on animals, 

 not only for the discovery and elucidation of the cura- 

 tive and preventive methods, but for the direct deriva- 

 tion of the Immunising sera, is Implied rather than 

 clearly stated in so many words. In fact, It looks 



