144- REPORT — 1871. 



Report of the Committee appointed to consider the subject of 

 Physiological Experimentation. 



A CouoiiTTEE, consisting of ten individuals, having been appointed at the last 

 Meeting of the British Association, held at Liverpool, to consider the subject 

 of Physiological Experimentation, 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. 



Report. 



i. No experiment which can be performed under the influence of an anaes- 

 thetic 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 with- 

 out the employment of ansesthetics is not a fitting exhibition for teaching 

 purposes. 



iii. Wliencvcr, for the investigation of new truth, it is necessary to make a 

 painful experiment, every effort should l)e 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 insufficient instruments and assistance, or in places not suitable to 

 the purpose, that is to say, anywhere except in physiological and patho- 

 logical laboratories, under proper regulations. 



iv. In the scientific preparation for veterinary practice, operations ought not 

 to be performed upon living animals for the mere purpose of obtaining 

 greater operative dexterity. 



Signed by : — M. A. Lawson, Oxford. G. M. HtriirnRT, Cambridge. 

 WH.BALEorK,! j,^^^^^^^_ 

 Arthur Gamoee, J ° 



William Flower, Royal College of Surgeons, London. 

 J. BuRDOiq^ Sanderson, London. 

 George Rolleston, Secretary, Oxford. 



Hesohdions referred to in the Report. 



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

 statement of their views upon Physiological Experiments in their various 

 bearings, and that this document be circulated among the Members of the 

 Association. 



That the said 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 suffering entailed by legitimate physiolo- 

 gical inquiries ; or any which will have the effect of employing the influence 

 of this Association in the discouragement of experiments which are not clearly 

 legitimate on live animals. 



The following resolution, subsequently passed by the Committee of Section 

 D (Biology), was adopted by the General Committee : — 



" That the following gentlemen be appointed a Committee for the pur- 

 pose of carrying out the suggestion on the question of Physiological Expe- 

 riments made by the General Committee, — Professor Rolleston, Professor 

 Lawson, Professor Balfour, Dr. Gamgee, Professor M. Foster, Professor 

 Humphry, Professor W. H. Flower, Professor Sanderson, Professor Mac- 

 alister, and Professor Redfern ; that Professor Rolleston be the Secretary, 

 and that they be requested to report to the General Committee." 



