144 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 25, 1873 



he Ihiis laid down the groundwork of the principle by which 

 thanks to the practical improvements introduced soon 

 after by Messrs. Elkington and Ruolz, electric gilding 

 has gradually superseded the deleterious process of gild- 

 ing by mercury. It was on this occasion that the grand 

 prize of 3,000 fr. was awarded to de la Rive by the French 

 Academic des Sciences. 



A long and patient study of the phenomena which ac- 

 company the aurora borealis, and of their apparent con- 

 iiection,'both with the properties exhibited by the flame 

 of the Voltaic arc when under the influence of a magnet, 

 and with the passage of the electric fluid through ex- 

 tremely rarefied gases, gradually led de la Rive to a new 

 theory on the electric origin of the aurora. His theory 

 was illustrated, and to a certain extent rendered plausible, 

 by a series of beautiful experiments, reproducing in the 

 lecture-room, through artificial means, the varied pheno- 

 mena which characterise the aurora. These experiments 

 were made first at Geneva, and some time after repeated 

 at Paris before some of the most distinguished members 

 of the French Institute. 



But de la Rive's acquirements were not limited to 

 science. The noble use he made of his fortune, the well- 

 known hospitality which rendered his country house near 

 Geneva for nearly forty years a centre of attraction to the 

 most distinguished scientific and literary society of 

 Europe, the high tone of his character, and the 

 many services he rendered his country, more parti- 

 cularly when called upon in i860 to use the influ- 

 ence of his name and position in obtaining from the 

 English Government an effectual support for Switzerland 

 against the threatened danger of French aggression, have 

 secured to his memory a popularity which will long sur- 

 vive him. 



VIVISECTION 



THE advance of culture has brought v/ith it an in- 

 creased tenderness, and a more solicitous regard for 

 the feelings of others, a regard extending slowly but 

 surely to the feelings of animals also. It is to Science 

 that this advance is mainly due. Only by gaining clear 

 conceptions of natural sequences can men be brought to 

 repress their native tendency to inflict pain as an exertion of 

 power, or to feel ashamed of their thoughtless indifference 

 when they see pain inflicted by others. It is demon- 

 strable that Ignorance has ever been the most potent ally 

 of Cinielty — on the small scale of boys torturing animals, 

 and on the large scale of priests torturing heretics. The 

 boy can only be made to feel that his act is vicious by 

 having a vivid imagination of the fact that the animal 

 organism is constructed like his own, and that the animal 

 suft'ers as he sufl'ers. The holy inquisitor, or enthroned 

 persecutor, can only be made to see that his attempt to 

 combat heresy by an auio-da-Ji:, is flagrantly at variance 

 with all psychological experience. If the vast cruelties of 

 persecuting " fanatics " have become intolerable in mo- 

 dern society, it is assuredly from no dogmatic teaching, 

 no insistence on charity and love, but wholly from a 

 moral enlightenment coming with a larger and more 

 accurate understanding of natural sequences. 



Not only has Science been a great agent in evolving 

 the sympathies, and creating the intense desire to avoid 

 giving pain, it has also created the means of alleviating 

 pain. Is not the whole skill of the surgeon and the phy- 

 sician devoted to this end? Hov\' comes it, then, that 

 physiologists who have to supply the surgeon and phy- 

 sician with accurate data, which they can only reach 

 through Experiment, are supposed to be less sympathetic, 

 less careful of the feelings of animals, than other men ? 

 A candid person would at once admit that this was not 

 so ; would admit that physiologists are quite as unwilling 

 to inflict iiHiu'ccssaiy pain as men of other classes. But 



because Vivisection is one of the branches of physio- 

 logical Ex])eriment, and because whcii the details of 

 such vivisections are reported, the public reading 

 these, and wholly unacquainted both with the pur- 

 pose and the procedure, is .'hocked at what seems 

 needless cruelty, a cry of indignation naturally escapes, 

 and the experimenter is regarded as indifferent to the 

 sufterings of animals. 



Every thinking man will admit that the feeling which 

 prompts this indignant cry is highly laudable, and every 

 man who understands the real case will declare that this 

 feeling is misguided by ignorance. For what is the fact.' 

 The fact is, that in the vast majority of experiments no 

 pain is inflicted, the operations that are painful being per- 

 formed under chloroform, and thus the animal w-hicb has 

 undergone an operation which would have killed it^ had it 

 not been insensible, awakens from the coma and begins 

 tranquilly eating the food before it, as if nothing but a 

 sleep had gone before ! In some cases, indeed, pain is 

 unavoidable ; in some it is part of the phenomenon inves- 

 tigated. But this procedure is not chosen in wantonness, 

 or the thoughtlessness of ciuelty. The operation is justi- 

 fied by its purpose. If the tender surgeon inflicts pain, it 

 is to save pain ; if the physiologist inflicts pain, it is to 

 widen knowledge, and thus alleviate pain on a wide scale. 

 This is very diflerent from the pain inflicted for the sake 

 oi sport J very different from the measureless misery of 

 wars, inflicted to gratify national vanity or commercial 

 greed. The physiologist does not inflict pain for his 

 own pleasure ; he overcomes his repugnance to it, 

 as he overcomes his repugnance to the sights of the 

 amphitheatre and hospital, nerved by a sense of ul- 

 terior good. 



Here we meet the question raised by " X.," whether man 

 is justified in inflicting pain on animals to secure the good 

 of fellow-men ? I unhesitatingly answer. Yes. It is quite 

 certain that man does assume and assert supremacy, eat- 

 ing, subduing, and exterminating animals, according to 

 his needs ; and I would ask whether human life would be 

 practicable on this globe on other conditions .' Why, 

 there is seldom a spade thrust into the earth that does not 

 cut some worm into writhing halves. If this be excused 

 as a painful necessity, then also must vivisection be ex- 

 cused as a painful necessity ; if the one is necessary to 

 food, the other is necessary to knowledge. The physio- 

 logist is the judge of the necessity ; on him rests the 

 responsibility. 



And now a word on the particular experiments which 

 called forth X.'s protest. Obviously, since testing sensi- 

 bility was the very purpose in view, Prof. GoUz, Prof. 

 Foster, and myself were forced either to forego the inquiry, 

 or to inflict more or less pain, and (if need were) excessive 

 pain. Perhaps X. will say that such an inquiry ought not 

 to have been pursued at such a cost. Wc thought other- 

 wise. The point cannot be argued now ; but I would 

 illustrate what has been just said, by informing X. that 

 even here anesthetics were used where they could be 

 used — when I removed the skin from the legs or the body 

 of the frogs, or took out their brains, the animals were 

 wholly insensible ; and dreadful as it may seem to read 

 of their limljs being pricked, and burned, we are assured 

 that no pain whatever, not even the feeling of contact, was 

 felt by the frogs. 



In conclusion, I would urge upon the opponents of Vivi- 

 section, that it would be but fair to credit physiologists 

 with the same repugnance to the infliction of pam.as 

 animates all enlightened classes ; and to consider that if 

 the repugnance is overcome in the pursuit of physio- 

 logical knowledge, it does not the less exist, nor the less 

 guide their conduct in other cases. For myself, I may be 

 permitted to add that so far from acknowledging indiffer- 

 ence to the feelings of animals, my sympathies are un- 

 usually active in the direction of animals ; and it was my 

 inability to witness pain which prevented my pursuing the 



