542 
NATURE 
[ April 5, 1883 
Ir is reported that Dr. Emil Holub is at last about to start 
again for the dark continent. As before, so will Dr. Holub 
now go to Africa without one penny State assistance ; and the 
only support he could obtain is that a special train will carry his 
cases to the Austrian frontier, and, if the German Government 
permit, to Hamburg, where they will be embarked for South 
Africa. The money for his expedition he acquired himself by 
lecturing in Vienna, Berlin, London, &c. He will leave Austria 
after he hears that his cases have arrived in Africa, in about two 
months, and he contemplates remai sing on the African continent 
about four years. The 150 cases and about 100 other packages 
which he takes contain all that is necessary for a scientific 
expedition, includins scientific instruments which the Austrian 
War Ministry lends him. He has also a transportable iron cart, 
which can be taken to pieces, and an iron boat on Stanley’s 
celebrated models, both gifts of Austrian mannfacturers or 
private persons. The remainder of the cases are filled with 
utensils, arms, stuffs, cotton goods, &c., for the natives, and all 
other neces:aries. 
THE Museum for Commercial Geography was opened at 
Berlin in the Architekten House on April 1. 
TuHE Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg has 
awarded its highest distinction, viz. the Constantine medal, to 
Dr. Hermann Abich of Vienna, for his work, ‘‘ Geological 
Researches in the Caucasus.” 
FACTS AND CONSIDERATIONS RELATING 
LO THE PRACTICE OF SCIENTIFIG EX- 
PERIMENTS ON LIVING ANIMALS, CO.M- 
MONLY CALLED VIVISECTION! 
[lssued by the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by 
Research] 
§ 1. MEDICINE, as the art of preventing and curing disease, 
; depends first, upon Anatomy and Physiology, or 
knowledge of che structure aud working of the human body in 
health ; secondly, upon Pathology, or knowledge of the origin, 
course, and re-ults of disease; and thirdly, upon knowledge ot 
the effects of various mechanical, physical, or chemical means 
which prevent or modify diseased processes, and are thus avail- 
able for preventive or curative Treatment. 
As in every other practical arr, the application of scientific 
(that is to say, exact and general) knowledge to particular cases 
mu-t be checked and controlled by practical experieuce. But 
the history of medicine abundantly proves that experience 1s 
productive only ia so far as it is guided by the habit of scientific 
inquiry and quickened by physiological knowledge. The foun- 
dation of efficient medicine was laid by the discoveries of the 
sixteenth ceniury in anatomy, and of the seventcenth century in 
physiology, and its rajid progress in modern times has been 
chiefiy the result of di-coveries in physics, in chemistry, and in 
general biology.” 
: The term “ Vivisection” is open to objection. Asa question-begging 
epithet, it produces an unfounded prejudice against experiments, of which 
the majority are painless, and of which the object is to relieve the sufferings 
of both man and brutes. Moreover, the term is at once too narrow and too 
wide: too narrow, since it excludes painful experiments which do not in- 
volve cutting, such as exposure to disease; and too wide, since it includes 
painful procedures upon animals for other than scientific or humane objects, 
for food, as in preparation for the table, for convenience, as in horse and 
cattle breeding, or fur amusement, as in certain sports, ‘he same operation 
which, if performed for the acquirement of knowledge, is called a vivi- 
section, 1s not called a vivisection when performed for a less worthy object. 
2 Some otherwise well-informed persons have expressed doubt as to the 
reality of the great progress of medicine durlng the present century. This 
doubt arises partly from an arbitrary separation of what is called internal 
medicine from surgery (la médicine opératoire) and from preventive medicine. 
The world fu ly appreciates such triumphs of medicine as the cure of Aneu- 
rism and prevention of Smali-pox, the discovery of Anzsthetics and the 
success of ()variotomy, the results of Antiseptic surgery, the vastly de- 
creased mortality after operations, and the protection of cattle from pesti- 
lence by inoculation. But in the treatment of fevers, inflammations, and 
other internal diseases, conventionally called medical, progress is less 
striking, because, being more obscure, these maladies have not yet been 
brought under the complete influence of scientific investigation. 
In proof, however, that the scientific spirt of modern medicine has not 
failed to advance the treatment of even the more obscure diseases, and that 
practical advance in medical treatment has nut been limited to operat.ve 
surgery, may be adduced as instances: the-gréatly lessened mortality in 
Fevers, owing to physiological observations and scientific treatment, the 
improved diagnosis and more successfi:{ results in cases of paralysis and 
other diseases of the Nervous System; the far shorter and less painful 
course of acute Rheumatism; the advance in treatment of Diabetes, Con- 
sumption, Dropsies, and affections of the Heart, and the successful cure of 
numerous forms of disease now proved to be due to animal or vegetable 
parasites. 
“Looking back over the improvements of practical medicine and surgery 
Medicine then, iNcluding Hygiene, or preventive medicine, 
and Therapeutics, or curative medicine, whether it acts by 
operative and mechanical measures,! by the administration of 
drugs, or by other means, does not depend upon arbitrary 
dogmas, or upon the theories of one or another school ; it depends 
upon accurate knowledge of the structure and functions of the 
body in health and disease, and of the effects of various agents 
upon it, applied in each case by the aid of bedside experience— 
kal’ Exagrov yap iatpeve. 
The relation of medicine to physiology and pathology is the 
same as that of navigation to astrometry and meteorology, or 
of engineering to applied mathematics, or of dyeing and other 
manufactures to chemistry. A seaman may safely direct a 
vessel who is ignorant of the construction of a quadrant; a 
bridge may be built without knowledge of theoretical mechanics, 
and a watch may be ‘‘cured ” or a musical instrument ‘‘ tuned” 
by a workman who is unacquainted with mathematics or acoustics, 
In the same way many men are useful! practitioners of medicine 
who are imperfectly acquaintei with the scientific basis of their 
practice. But it is only the most ignorant of sailors who sneer 
at natural science, and the most presumptuous of watchmakers 
wh» rail at mathematics. 
§ 2. The knowledge of the functions of the body in health, 
or Physiology ; the knowledge of the origin and course of 
diseases, or Pathology; and the knowledge of the action of 
remedies, or Pharmacology, like other branches of natural 
science, depend entirely upon observation and experiment. 
Mere observation at its best is but careful noting of such experi- 
ments as natural laws or accident may present; experiment, or 
observation of events under intentionally varied conditions, is 
abs>lutely necessary in addition.” Indeed, it would be as un- 
reasonable to expect the ‘‘ Institute of Medicine” (as physiology 
and pathology are rightly called) to advance without laboratories 
and experiments on animals, as to hope for progress in chemistry 
or physics by allowing only observation upon metals and gases 
and forbidding the pertormance of experiments. 
It is true that there are special difficulties in the study of the 
natural laws of living bodies. The conditions are far more 
complicated than those of the inorganic world, and observations 
and experiment, must be proporti »nately numerous, well-devired, 
and cautiously interpreted. Fallacies of observation and de- 
duction are difficult to avoid, and often results are seemingly 
contradictory until their true meaning is perceived by help of 
fresh experiments and more careful reasoning. But the great 
and assured re-ults which have been already obcained prove that 
these difficulties are far from insurmountable. All our present 
knowledge has been achieved in spite of them, and thereby the 
path to future discoveries has been cleared. No reasonable 
person would disparage experimental inquiry into the functions 
of plants and the cultivation of crops, because the laws of 
vegetable life are more complicated and obscure than thos? of 
mineralogy : or would call the experiaeuts of the botanist 
useless because they are difficult. 
That experiments on living creatures, like all other experi- 
ments made by fallible persons, have sometimes misled, is an 
obvious truth. Many errors atte..ded the first application of the 
stethoscope, of the micrsscope, and of chemical analysis to 
medicine, so that impatience and ignorance pronounced that 
each of these valuable methods of investigation was useless. 
§ 3. The future progress of medicine, in the widest sense of 
the word, of the art which prevents disease, promotes health, 
relieves sickness and prolongs life, depends upon the same cause 
which has led to its present position—upon more complete ac- 
quaintance with the laws of health and diseae. These laws 
have been, and can only be, succe-sfully investigated by obser 
vations and experiments. 
This conclusion is not only the inevitable result of reasoning, 
during my own observation. of them in nearly fifty years (writes Sir James 
Paget) see great numbers of means effectual for the saving of lives and for 
the detection, prevention, or quicker remedy of diseases and physical dis- 
abilities, all obtained by means ef knowledge, to the acquirement or safe 
use of which experiments on animals have contributed. ‘There is scarcely 
an operation in surgery of which the mortality is now more than half as 
great as it was forty years ago; scarcely a serious injury of which the 
consequences are more than half as serious; several diseases are remediable 
which used to be nearly always fatal; potent medicines have been intro- 
duced and safely used; altogether, such a quantity of life and working 
power has been saved by lately-acquired knowledge as is truly past counting. ”” 
* “« Forasmuch as the Science of Physick doth comprehend, include, and 
contain the knowledge of Chirurgery as a special member and part of the 
same, "’—Statute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 40. ' : . 
ae Pi L’observateur écoute la nature, l’expérimentateur l'interroge. "— 
uvier. 
