352 



NA TURE 



\Atigust II, 1 88 1 



cians to viviseet animals for experimental purposes, or to umler- 

 taUe painful operations of any other kind. 



Of course we cannot desire that the misuse of this right should 

 escape punishment. For it is with such an abuse, not with tlie 

 production of pain, that torture of animals first comes inio opera- 

 tion. Were every production of pain in itself an act of torture, 

 punishment ought to be inflicted on a veterinary surgeon when 

 he operates on a sick horse for the purpose of curing it. Culpable 

 torture of animals lies before us, when pain is inflicted on an 

 animal in a useless manner, and without purpose. Hence 

 nothing can be said against the view that every experimenter 

 should be suliject to ofhcial inspection ; but surely this does not 

 require a society for the protection of animals. He who has a 

 greater interest in domestic animals than in science, that is, in 

 the knowledge of truth, is not qualified to be an official controller 

 of scientific affairs. To what would it lead, if an experimenter, 

 who had commenced his experiment in good faith, had perh.nps 

 o answer to some layman during the experiment, or to a magis- 

 trate afterwards, the charge that he had not selected some other 

 method, or some other instruments, or perhaps some other ex- 

 periment ? 



No : here is no question of objective right. So long as perfect 

 liberty is left to every possessor of animals to kill his animals, be 

 they wild or tame, at any time, and according to his own judg- 

 ment, so long must it also be permitted that, for scientific ends, 

 and thus on purely internal grounds, experiments should be made 

 on living animals. But the necessity of such experiments can 

 naturally only be decided by the inquirer himself ; as to the 

 choice of place, time, the admission of strangers, he may be 

 required to communicate with the inspector ; but the carrying 

 out of the experiment must remain in his own hands. So we 

 understanfi the expression of the freedom of science. 



What is objected to us is, that it is the outraged feelings of the 

 possessor of horses, pet dogs, and parlour c^its that excite him 

 to the belief that the same thing may happen to his beloved 

 animals as to the ariimals in the learned institute. We can s; m- 

 pathise with hmi. We would force no one to deliver to us his 

 favourites, not would we steal them. Were either of the two 

 to occur, pr'bably in every country the intervention of the 

 magistrate would be called on with effect. But we also 

 require that the disposal of the life and maintenance of those 

 aninnls which have come into our possession in a legitimate wa)', 

 shoul 1 not be lessened to us, and that we should not be con- 

 sidered or declared to be h priori rough, void of moral feeling, 

 and baibiri ns standing almost on tlie threshold of crime. '1 he 

 evidence that moral earnestness is failing in modern medical 

 circles is iLovvhere afforded. The reproach that Christianity is 

 imperilled by vivi-ection is worthy of Abdera. The assertion 

 that the medi :nl youth are inevitably " brutalised " by dissection 

 and vivi ecMon is, as usual, snatched from the air ; as it is also a 

 calumny that the vivisecting teachers have suffered injury to their 

 moraliiy 



At least however there is no ground to fear for science itself. 

 To it is applicable what Bacon said of the sun : " Palatia et 

 cloacas ingreuitur, neque tamen polluitur." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, August i. — M. Jamin in the chair. — 

 The f illovving pnpers were r^-ad : — On the formation of tails of 

 comets ( econd n 'te), by M. Faye. Herschel, Arago, Delaunay, 

 and other astronomers did not thoroughly study the tails of 

 CTmets, but Newton had already given a quite sufficient explana- 

 tion of the phenomena. Thf tail is nothing else — he maintained 

 — than the result of a continual emission of molecules from the 

 head of the comet. It is very much like- the tail of smoke 

 emitted by a running locomotive, its outer end being lost in 

 space, and the inner one continually receiving a new sup])Iy 

 of molecules. M. Roche, who has made the necessary cal- 

 culations, taking account of the repulsive force M. Faye ad- 

 vocates, has worked out all those shapes of tails which w-e 

 witness in reality. — On the equivalence of quadratic forms, by 

 M. Jordan. — On a modification of the electric lamp, by M. Jamin, 

 being the re-ult of obser\'ations on the electric light in vacuum, 

 and in cl 'sed vessels containing various gases. — On the per- 

 chloric acids, by M. Berthelot — On the travels of Moncatch-Ape, 

 by M. Quatrefages. This American Indian undertook a journey 

 to the north western coasts of America at the beginning of last 



cen'ury, in search of the oriijin of his race ; whilst on this coast 

 he learned and witnessed that it was visited every year by white 

 men with long black beards, and M.- Quatrefages proves that 

 these men were originally from the Loo Choo islands. — On the 

 fiist meteorological, topographical, and hydrographical observa- 

 tions at the future Panama canal, by M. de Lesseps. Several 

 maps of the co.ast are prepared, and a meteorological station is 

 opened at Colon. — On the application of electromotive power and 

 of M. Plante's secondary piles to the direction of aero-tats, by 

 M. Tissandier. In an aero, tat which has a volume of 22CO 

 litres, 3'5om. long, Mith a diameter of i'3om., and can 

 raise a weight of 2 kilogrammes, having a Siemens machine 

 v\hich weighs 220 grammes, and a secondai-y couple of 1300 

 grammes, the propulsory helix makes six and a half revolutions 

 per second, and the balloon acquires a speed of i metre per 

 second for forty minutes. The small Siemens machine, with 

 three elements, pro.iuces the work of i kilogrammetre. — The 

 elements of comet c of 1S81 (Schaberle), by M. Bigourdan. as 

 deduced from observations at Vienna on July 18, and at Paris 

 on July 23 and 28. Its brightness, which is still increasing, will 

 be on August 23 seventeen times as much as it was on July 18. 

 — Spectroscopical oliservations on the comets i and r, 1S81, by 

 MM. Thollon and Tacchini. — On the lengths of spectral bands 

 given by compounds of carbon, by M. Thollon. — On the con- 

 stitution of comets, by M. Prazmowski. — On the theory of trilinear 

 forms, by M. Le Paige. — On the influence of pressure on dissocia- 

 tion, by M. Lemoine. — On the heat of formation of explosives, 

 by MM. Sarrau and VieiUe. — On oxycyanides of lead, cadmium, 

 and mercury, by M. Joannis. — On the heat of combustion of 

 heptane and of hexahydrotoluene, by M. Louguinine. — Third 

 note on the magnesia industry, by M. Schlosing. — A contribu- 

 tion to the study of the tran-mission of tuberculosis, by M. 

 Toussaint. The juices of animals which have had tuberculosis 

 transmit the disease with very great ease, even v\hen submitted 

 to a high temperature, but especially when employed uncooked. 

 — On the injection of the virus of rabies into the circulation, by 

 M. Galtier. It seems to prevent infection. — On hemeralopi.i and 

 on the functions of the visual purple, by M. Parinaud. — On the 

 applications of electromotors, by M. Trouve. 



Vienna 

 Imperial Academy of Sciences, July 21. — L. T. Filringer 

 in the chair. — A. Rollett, on the derived albumins noted as acid- 

 albumins and alkaline albuminates. — Dr. Stur, on the Silurian 

 flora of the H-/;; stratum in Bohemia. — S. Lustgarten, on an 

 ethyl nitrate foimed by the action of nitric acid on glycogen. — 

 Ernst Lecher, on the spectral distribution of radiant heat. — Dr. 

 T. Kessel, on the function of the external ear in relation to the 

 space-perception. — On the diflerence of intensity of a linear-pro- 

 duced sound in different directions, by the same. — F. Fossek, on 

 the products of condensation of isobutyl aldehyde. — Zd. H. 

 Skraup, on quinine and quinidine. — Note on some quinine com- 

 pounds, by the same. — Prof. Freund, on the formation and 

 preparation of trimethene alcohol from glycerine. — Preliminary 

 note on trimethene, by the same. — H. Weidel, on a compound 

 isomeric to ct-sulphocinchoninicacid. — G. Goldschmidt, on mono- 

 and dinitropyrene and amidopyrene. — E. Wei-s, a communica- 

 tion on the third comet of the year 1S81 (i88t^), discovered by 

 Schaberle at Aim Arbor (Michigan). — T. Woehner, report on 

 his observations of the earthquake phenomena in Croatia in the 

 year 1880. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



Vivisection and Medicine 329 



TheBiblea.nd Science. By George J. Romanes. F.R.S. ... 332 



Lette's to t he Kditok :— 



Though -ReadinK.— Rev. George Henslow 3.:i5 



A Gun-Signal Recorder.— A. G. P 335 



Symbolic Logic— Hugh McColl 335 



Bisected Humble-Bees.— T. Mashedkr 3^5 



A New Meter for Electric Currents.— IohnT. Spbague ... 335 



A PoPLiLAR ACCOUNT OF Cham.bleons, II. By St- George Mivart, 



F.R.S J35 



The International Mkdical Congress 338 



Notes 339 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Gould's Comet-Obser\'ations on Jane 11 34 = 



Schcibcrle's Comet ... ' . . 342 



The Consfction of the Biological Sciences with Medicine. By 



Prof T. H. Huxley, LL.D.. Sec R.S 342 



On the Value of Pathological Experiments. By Prof. Rudolf 



ViRCHOw, M.D 346 



Societies and Academies 352 



