100 ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY. 



and models, and conveyed by a teacher whose own 

 knowledge has been acquired by a study of the facts ; 

 and not the mere catechism al parrot-work which too 

 often usurps the place of elementary teaching. 



It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to give a formal 

 contradiction to the silly fiction, which is assiduously 

 circulated by fanatics who not only ought to know, but 

 do know, that their assertions are untrue, that I have 

 advocated the introduction of that experimental disci- 

 pline which is absolutely indispensable to the professed 

 physiologist, into elementary teaching. 



But while I should object to any experimentation 

 which can justly be called painful, for the purpose of 

 elementary instruction; and, while, as a member of a 

 late Koyal 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 exhibit- 

 ing one of the most beautiful and instructive of physio- 

 logical spectacles, the circulation in the web of the foot. 

 No one could undertake to affirm that a frog is not in- 

 convenienced 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 in- 

 flict the least pain on a vertebrated animal for scientific 



