XI INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY 301 



indispensable to the professed physiologist, into 

 elementary teaching. 



But while I should object to any experimenta- 

 tion which can justly be called painful, for the 

 purpose of elementary instruction ; and, while, as 

 a member of a late Royal Commission, I gladly 

 did my best to prevent the infliction of needless 

 pain, for any purpose ; I think it is my duty to 

 take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a 

 condition of the law which permits a boy to troll 

 for pike, or set lines with live frog bait, for idle 

 amusement ; and, at the same time, lays the 

 teacher of that boy open to the penalty of fine and 

 imprisonment, if he uses the same animal for the 

 purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful 

 and instructive of physiological spectacles, the 

 circulation in the web of the foot. No one could 

 undertake to affirm that a frog is not incon- 

 venienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and 

 having his toes tied out ; and it cannot be denied 

 that inconvenience is a sort of pain. But you 

 must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated 

 animal for scientific purposes (though you may 

 do a good deal in that way for gain or for sport) 

 without due licence of the Secretary of State for 

 the Home Department, granted under the 

 authority of the Vivisection Act. 



So it comes about, that, in this present year of 

 grace 1877, two persons may be charged with 

 cruelty to animals. One has impaled a frog, and 



