SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1455 



Porter, M.D., Edward H. Nichols, M.D., Henry 

 A. Christian, M.D., John Warren, M.D. The 

 address of the secretary of the Boylston Med- 

 ical Committee is Eeid Hunt, M.D., Harvard 

 Mediical School, Boston, Mass. 



ANTI-VIVISECTION LEGISLATION IN 

 CALIFORNI.^ 



The proposed laiv prohibiting vivisection in 

 California was defeated at tlie recent election 

 by an overwheJmuig majority. Prior to the 

 election 'the regents of the University of Cali- 

 fornia, by President DaVid P. Barrows, and 

 the board of trustees of Stanford University, 

 by President Ray Lyman Wilbur, issued the 

 statement which follows : 



The advance of sanitation, modern medicine 

 and physiology, nutrition, the teaching of biology 

 and the protection of our industries and agricul- 

 ture all rest on animal experimentation. The 

 control of the epidemic diseases of man and of 

 animals, the management of surgical operations 

 and of childbirth, and the oertifieaition of miilk, 

 food and -water supplies would be impossible 

 without the knowledge gained by such studies. 

 In fact, the present-day protection of the public 

 from diseases, which is vital to our community 

 life, rests on animal experimentaition. The Uni- 

 versity of California and Stanford University are 

 vitally interested in the defeat of this initiative 

 measure, since ita passage would be a state-wide 

 calamitj'. 



Not only would it stop tlie research work now 

 going on in the medical schools, hospitals and 

 laboratories and in the Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try, buit it would damage the market for most of 

 California's food products and markedly reduce 

 the confidence of visitors coming into the state. 

 If California could not certify to its food and 

 water supplies, could not guarantee protection 

 against contagious diseases, could not provide 

 certified milk, the effect on agriculture and indus- 

 try in the state would be disastrous. The near 

 collapse of the olive industry', due to the poison- 

 ing of a tew people in eastern states, and the 

 way in which the industry was saved by the re- 

 searches carried on in the laboratories of the 

 two universities, indicate the imperative necessity 

 of freedom for the universities in animal experi- 

 mentation. California food, instead of being 

 looked to as an example of purity, would be 

 shunned. 



The ittitiative ijieasure would make it impossible 



to test with birds for deadly gases in the mines 

 of the state. It would stop the manufacture of 

 serum for the prevention of hog cholera, the 

 preparation of vaccine for anthrax and the vari- 

 ous other products that are required for the pro- 

 tection of our industries in agriculture and that 

 annually save millions of dollars and prevent 

 great mortality among domestic animals. Under 

 the act, operations on various farm animals could 

 be carried on mthout anesthetics to increase the 

 palatability of foods, but no animals could be 

 used in experimental work if the information ob- 

 tained is for the benefit of a person or of the 

 Iramau race. 



We feel that no worse attack on the welfare of 

 the state and on the right of the universities to 

 seek and teach the truth could be made. Every 

 man, woman and child, every unborn bahe, every 

 domestic animal in the state, would be affected if 

 this measure becomes a law. It strikes at all. It 

 is unnecessary special legislation, due to preju- 

 dice and misinformation. No one will tolerate 

 cruelty to animals. The present laws of the state 

 are drastic and sufficient to oonjtrol any aibuse. 

 We know that there is no cruelty to animals in 

 the' laboratories of the universities. They are in 

 charge of men and women of the highest charac- 

 ter who are unselfishly working rto better the lot 

 of their fellowmen and to advance the interests 

 of their community and of the state. Anesthetics 

 are always used for animals in the laboratory in 

 exactly the same way that ithey are used by sur- 

 geons in the operating rooms. 



We urge upon the citizens of the state the im- 

 perative necessity of defeating this initiative 

 measure. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 Reduced railway rates for those attending 

 the fourth Boston meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 (to be hdd mainly in the 'buildings of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam- 

 'bridge, Mass., from Decem'ber 26 to 30) have 

 'been fully granted by all of the railway pas- 

 senger associations excepting the Trans- 

 continental. Furthermore, in the territory of 

 the last-named passenger association the privi- 

 lege of reduced rates on this occasion extends 

 westward on Montana lines to points in 

 Oregon and Washington (excepting Portland), 

 by routes through the Missouri River' and ■ St, 



