Jan. 29, 1874] 



NA TURE 



243 



fear of physiologists losing sight of the duty of vivisection, 

 not merely for the discovery of truth, but for its demonstration 

 to students of physiology. 



Meanwhile I {for one) who, not being an expert in any branch 

 of physiological science, have been educated to set the highest 

 value on its conquests, cannot concede to the physiologists the 

 principle which has been somewhat arrogantly put forth in re- 

 cent discussions, that research for the purpose of acquiring new 

 facts in physiology necessitates and justifies vivisection. On the 

 contrary, I cannot admit that to ascertain the order ot Nature 

 is so high an end in itself as to render superfluous or irrelevant 

 the preliminary question, Wheiher the means to be employed 

 for that object are right or wrong ? We have no need to discuss 

 the rights of the lower orders ol sentient beings ; it is suflicient 

 that we should recognise the fact that they have been endowed 

 with organisms of exquisite sensibility, not for the purpose of 

 alTording man a ready means of experiment, but for the fulfil- 

 ment of their own functions. To overlook this, to exercise the 

 law of the strong over the weak, and to accustom ourselves to the 

 conscious and deliberate infliction of pain on those beings, with 

 no other object than to satisfy a rational curiosity, must recoil on 

 the operator, and do violence to his moral nature. 



When I see acts of wanton cruelty I am revolted, but I have 

 hope ; for I trust to the ameliorating elTect of education to eradi- 

 cate the propensity to cruelty. But when I learn that acts of 

 deliberate cruelty are done by "worthy and humane " men, I 

 am revolted without hope. Convince roe that the cultivation of 

 physical science culminates in making men so " worthy and 

 humane" that they can practise the vivisection of an animal (to 

 quote Isaac Walton's words) " a.s if he loved him," and you 

 convince me of the mischievous tendency of such an education. 



One word more : if there were a race of intelligents as much 

 superior to man as man is to the dog, and certain investigators 

 of that race were to capture men and women, and subject them 

 to vivisection, in order to advance a knowledge which is beyond 

 the faculties of man, what should we do ? Submit, of course ; 

 but should we bow with resignation to our lot, and think our 

 ])ains well spent, if our wretched tortured bodies did thereby add 

 one jot to the scientific capital of our captors ? Or, should we 

 not protest to the God of Heaven (if we happened to believe in 

 Ilim) against the monstrous and enormous injustice of which we 

 should be the victims ? Surely there is the same injustice in the 

 abuse of animal organisms (i.e., the use of them against their 

 nature) for the purpose of scientific exploration. 



Valentine House, Ilford, Jan. 18 C. M. Ingleby 



Instinct of Monkeys 



Having read the letters of Dr. Gulliver and G. J. R. in 

 N.\TUKE, vol. viii. pp. 103 and 163, in which the affection of 

 monkeys for their dead is discussed, I think that I may perhaps 

 be permitted to record my experience in regard to a certain class 

 of monkeys that I have peculiar facilities for observing, which 

 is not in accordance with the observation of Mr. Forbes or G. J. R. 



I keep, in my garden, a number of Gibbon apes [Hylobates 

 a^iiis) ; they live quite free from all restraint in the trees, merely 

 coming when called to be fed. One of these, a young male, on 

 one occasion fell from a tree and dislocated its wrist ; it received 

 the greatest attention from the others, especially from an old 

 female, who, however, was no relation ; she used, before eating 

 her own plaintains, to take up the first that were offered to her 

 every day and give them to the cripple, who was living in the 

 eaves of a wooden house ; and I have frequently noticed that a 

 cry of fright, pain, or distress from one would bring all the 

 others at once to the complainer, and they would then condole 

 with him and fold him in their arms. 



But one morning one of the flock was found hanging dead in 

 the fork of a tree, his comrades took no notice whatever of him, 

 and were placing and singing their peculiar song as usual close 

 to him ; on the body being removed they took no notice whatever. 



A neighbour of mine who keeps a pair of these apes, informs 

 me that the male lately came home after an absence of two 

 days very sick ; the female, who had theretofore been very affec- 

 tionate, carefully avoided him, and on his death a few days after 

 showed the most thorough indifference. Very possibly the 

 alleged affection for their dead may exist among some families 

 of monkeys, and not among others. Though my apes live in 

 complete freedom, they have never shown any disposition to breed, 

 though I have had some of them over two and a half years. 



.li 



VIVISECTION 

 A S public attention has again been directed to this question, 

 "^ we think it convenient to reproduce the report of a Com- 

 mittee of the British Association on the subject. 



The committee consisted of ten individuals, appointed at the 

 meeting of the British Association, held at Liverpool in the 

 year 1S70, to consider the subject of Physiological Experi- 

 mentation, in accordance with a resolution of the General 

 Committee hereto annexed. The following report was drawn up 

 and signed by seven members of the Committee ; — 

 i. No experiment which can be performed unj»r the influence 



of an anaesthetic ought to be done without it. 

 ii. No painful experiment is justifiable for the mere purpose of 

 illustrating a law or fact already demonstrated ; in other 

 words, experimentation without the employment of antes- 

 thetics is not a fitting exhibition for teaching purposes, 

 iii. Whenever, for the investigation of new truth, it is necessary 

 to make a painful experiment, every effort should be made 

 to ensure success, in order that the suffering inflicted may 

 not be wasted. For this reason, no painful experiment 

 ought to be performed by an unskilled person with insuffi- 

 cient instruments and asiistance, or in places not suitable to 

 the purioose, that is to say, anywhere except in physiological 

 and pathological laboratories, under proper regulations, 

 iv. In the scientific preparation for veterinary practice, opera- 

 tions ought not to be performed upon living animals for the 

 mere purpose of obtaining greater operative dexterity. 



Signed by : — M. A. L.wvsoN, Oxford. G. M. Humthry, 

 Cambridge. John H. Balfour, Arthur Gamgee, Edin- 

 burgh. William Flower, Royal College of Surgeons, 

 London. J. BuRDON Sanderson, London. George 

 ROLLESTON, Secretary, Oxford. 



Resolutions referred to in the Report. 

 That the Committee of Section D (Biology) be requested to 

 draw up a statement of their views upon Physiological Experi- 

 ments in their various bearings, and that this document be circu- 

 lated among the Members of the Association. 



That the sa'd Committee be further requested to consider from 

 time to time whether any steps can be taken by them, or by the 

 Association, which will tend to reduce to its minimum the suffer- 

 ing entailed by legitimate physiological inquiries ; or any which 

 will have the effect of employing the influence of this Association 

 in the discouragement of experiments which are not clearly legi- 

 timate on live animals. 



The following resolution, subsequently passed by the Com- 

 mittee of Section D (Biology), was adopted by the General 

 Committee : — 



" That the following gentlemen be appointed a Committee 

 for the purpose of carrying out the suggestion on the question 

 of Physiological Experiments made by the General Com- 

 mittee : — Prof. RoUeston, Prof Lawson, Prof. Balfour, Dr. 

 Gamgee, Prof. I\L Foster, Prof Humphry, Prof. W. H. 

 Flower, Prof Sanderson, Prof. Macilister, and Prof. 

 Redfern ; that Prof. Rolleston be the Secretary, and that they 

 be requested to report to the General Committee. " 



AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE 



THE magnificent Free Museu.Ti and Menagerie already- 

 established in the Central Park, New York, will 

 ever stand as noble monuments of their founder's muni- 

 ficence, and it is now proposed to add to these a third 

 source of benefit to science, and of recreation and instruc- 

 tion to the commonwealth at large. The scheme now in 

 contemplation is the erection in the same Park of a Marine 

 and Fresh-water Aquarium on the most approved system, 

 and of greater magnitude than any thing of the kind hitherto 

 attempted. FoUowin;^ a similar principle, it is likewise 

 intended to raise the funds requisite for establishing 

 this aquarium through appeals to the public spirit, and 

 proverbial liberality of New York's more wealthy citizens, 

 as also hereafter to endow the institution, and thronr the 

 same freely open to all comers. 



The credit of starting tiiis praiseworthy enterprise is 

 due to the Messrs. Appleton, the proprietors of Applcton's 

 Journal, a house well-known for their zeal and energy in 



