NATURE 



^11 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1874 



VIVISECTION 



THE question of the propriety of vivisection has ever 

 and anon cropped up for the last two centuries, and 

 learned and unlearned persons have not been found want- 

 ing to condemn the practice. Amongst the latter the term 

 vivisection has been taken to mean the dissecting of 

 animals alive, with no other motive than curiosity or a 

 malignant desire to be cruel to animals. 



This arises from the utter and entire ignorance, on the 

 part of the great mass of the public, of the scope and 

 nature of physiology or the laws of life. If the elements 

 of this noble and most useful science were taught in our 

 schools as they should be, the unmeaning outcry against the 

 practice of " dissecting live animals," as it is called, would 

 not be heard. People would then know that the wonderful 

 knowledge now possessed by man of the functions of his 

 body has mainly been acquired by experiments on living 

 animals, and that by the practice of vivisection is not 

 meant the dissection of living animals, but the perfor- 

 mance of experiments by which the nature of the functions 

 of living beings may be ascertained. 



Whatever excuse may be inade for the public on 

 account of their ignorance, there ought not to be any for 

 men belonging to the medical profession, who should 

 know the history of the science of physiology and the 

 dependence of all true practice of medicine and surgery 

 on the laws of life, mainly gained by humane and care- 

 ful experiments upon living animals. These men would 

 be answerable for much human suffering and preinature 

 death if they compelled men of science to give up the 

 practice of studying the laws of human life and arrest 

 the hand of -Science in investigating the functions of 

 living animals by inspection and experiments. 



We feel almost ashamed in the present age to have to 

 speak of the grand results which have been reaped by 

 mankind from the observations of our great physiological 

 discoverers in experiments on living animals. To begin 

 with Harvey, whose name is a household word amongst 

 us, and one of the grandest on the long page of England's 

 discoverers ; it is no perversion of words to say that he 

 could not have discovered or demonstrated the circulation 

 of the blood without the aid of vivisection. 



In his great work, " An Anatomical Disquisition on 

 the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals," 

 he heads the second chapter " Of the motions of 

 the heart as seen in the dissection of living animals." 

 In this work he gives detailed accounts of his ex- 

 periments, and also of those performed before the 

 noblest and most learned in the land, who did not object 

 to Harvey's experiments, but felt they were witnessing 

 the demonstration of a truth that would for ever be a 

 benefit to mankind. Had public opinion, had the Go- 

 vernment of the day, instead of encouraging Harvey pro- 

 ceeded to prosecute him for cruelty to animals, then man- 

 kind would have lost a discovery that has saved myriads 

 of human lives from torture and premature death by 

 disease. 



The discovery of the circulation of the blood produced 

 an immense revolution in the practice of medicine and 

 surgery. Counting the pulse became an intelligent aid to 

 \'oi.. IX. — No. 21Q 



the diagnosis of nearly all diseases. Operations for the 

 relief of disease were undertaken with fearlessness and the 

 greatest success. The nature of aneurism and its means 

 of cure were now understood. This last disease v/as 

 studied and the surgical operation for its cure almost 

 perfected by experiments on living animals by John Hunter. 

 This great anatomist also made most important contribu- 

 tions to our knowledge of the nature of venous absorp- 

 tion, by his operations on animals. Nearly all the 

 advances that have taken place in the treatment of 

 aneurism since the time of Hunter have been made 

 by experiments on living animals, amongst others we may 

 name those of Spence, of Edinburgh. 



Only to mention names rising to the surface from the 

 greatness of their discoveries, we refer to Sir Charles Bell, 

 to whom we are indebted for a knowledge of the nature 

 of sensationary and voluntary nerves and their double 

 origin in the spinal cord. These discoveries were made 

 by experiments on living aniinals, and belong to a series 

 which cannot be performed by the aid of anassthetics, as 

 the very essence of them consists in demonstrating that 

 whilst one set of nerves is devoted to the feeling of pain, 

 the other is the means of producing locomotion. 



Another almost equally important discovery, the nature 

 of the excito-motory action of the nervous system, 

 was demonstrated by experiments on living ani- 

 mals by Marshall Hall. To say that these disco- 

 veries of Bell and Hall have had no influence on 

 pathology and therapeutics, is to deny the experience 

 of every medical practitioner in the kingdom — is 

 to proclaim that the science of medicine is now 

 practised on the system pursued by physicians and 

 surgeons previous to the time of the discovery of the 

 circulation of the blood. Numerous arc the discoverers 

 who have tnade great advances in our knowledge of the 

 functions of the nervous system, by observations on living 

 animals, who still live to be honoured for the advances 

 they have made in that science which leads to the amelio- 

 ration of human suffering. We need but mention here 

 the names of Brown-Sequard and Ferrier. No human 

 mind could have guessed at the conclusions at which 

 they have arrived, but they have done so by the sure and 

 certain method of observing facts in the living organism. 



We might go on and fill our pages with the tnemories 

 of great men who have not hesitated, for the benefit of 

 mankind and the advancement of Science, to sacrifice the 

 life of the lower anim.als. Majendie was accused in Paris 

 of cruelty to animals, but his experiments led to a more 

 accurate knowledge of the influence of medicines on the 

 animal frame, and the introduction of a number of new 

 remedies, which are still in common use. Blake, by the 

 introduction of saline substances into the blood of living 

 animals, showed what was the action of these matters 

 on the blood, and he produced a sensible effect on the 

 practice of medicine. 



To the instructed this will seem a meagre list ; but we 

 hope enough has been said to show that to deny the utility 

 of experiments on living animals is to deny that medi- 

 cine has advanced at all during the last two centuries 

 and a half, and to admit that the guesses of uninstructed 

 practitioners are as good as the practice of the most cul- 

 tivated practitioners of medicine and surgery. 



Against this proof of the benefits of vivisection it has 



