150 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1415 



hypothesis of proven value. — Charles W. Eliot, 

 president emeritus of Harvard University. 



Should regard bill such as j'ou suggest certain 

 to make Kentucky the laughing stock of the 

 world. To prohibit the scientific teaching of the 

 facts of evolution Tvould involve adopting intel- 

 lectual attitude of the twelfth century. It is a 

 proposition which could not be seriously enter- 

 tained b}^ any really intelligent person. — James 

 E. Angell, president of Yale University. 



I take it for granted that the introducer of the 

 bill is in close communion with the rulers of 

 Soviet Russia, since he is faithfully reproducing 

 one of their fundamental policies. Truly we are 

 getting on. — Nicholas Murray Butler, president 

 of Columbia University. 



In the name of two hundred and fifty colleges 

 and universities located in forty-two states we 

 pray Kentucky will not commit intellectual 

 suicide by prohibiting the teaching of evolution 

 or the use of books favoring evolution. ' ' — Robert 

 L. Kelly, executive secretary. Association of 

 American Colleges, New York. 



Any attempt to impose legislative restrictions 

 on the teachers of science is contrary to all the 

 principles on which the American Republic has 

 been founded. — Charles S. MacFarland, general 

 secretary Federal Council of the Churches of 

 Christ in America, New York. 



CARDINAL DOUGHERTY ON VIVISECTION 



Cardinal Dougherty, of Philadelphia, 

 under date of December 30, 1921, addressed 

 the following letter to the Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Scientific Kesearch : 



Having been asked to give an expression of 

 opinion on the subject of vivisection, I deem it 

 needless to say that, with you and all others 

 opposed to cruelty of whatever kind, I deplore 

 any abuse of vivisection that may cause unneces- 

 sary pain to lower animals. 



But as actually conducted for the advancement 

 of medical research, vivisection seems to me not 

 only unobjectionable, but even praiseworthy. 

 Scientifically carried out, it is, as you know 

 better than I, almost entirely confined to the 

 inoculation of mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits, 

 and is much less frequently practiced on cats, 

 dogs, horses and other higher species of brute 

 animals. Since the invention of anesthetics, and 

 with the use of antiseptic methods, it has become 

 practically painless. Animals used for experi- 

 mental purposes are weU fed and sheltered, and 

 in many respects are better off than those in a 



state of nature or in subjection to work. They 

 escape the rapacity of fiercer and larger animals, 

 the iU-usage of sport, the drudgery of toil, expo- 

 sure to the heat and cold of the seasons, and the 

 cruelties of keepers, drivers and exploiters. 



According to the law of nature, the lower 

 species of creatures exist for the higher. The 

 clod of earth supports the plant. The vegetable 

 kingdom supplies the Avants of the animal. The 

 brute animal and all other inferior things are for 

 the good of man, who was made directly for the 

 glory of God. Man, then, may use all inferior 

 things for his own benefit. 



We exterminate vermin and insects, roaches, 

 mice, rats and serpents, for the sake of health, 

 cleanliness and comfort. The children in our 

 schools are taught to combat the plague of flies 

 as carriers of noxious microbes. We kill animals, 

 fowls and fish for our food. Fishermen bait fish 

 with live worms. 



If, then, to preserve or restore health, to pro- 

 long life, and even to seek pleasure, it is per- 

 missible to inflict pain and death upon inferior 

 forms of animal life, why may not the scientific 

 man, for the common good, experiment on lower 

 animals, especially when he takes every precau- 

 tion against unwarranted infliction of pain by the 

 use of anesthetics and by antiseptic methods? 



Animals, themselves, owe to vivisection a great 

 debt. Epizootic diseases, like anthrax, swine- 

 fever, chicken cholera, silk-worm disease, cattle 

 tuberculosis, which, in the past, caused untold 

 suffering to animals, and every year killed them 

 by millions, have been brought under control by 

 the experiments of vivisection. 



But man is the chief beneficiarj'. For it has 

 been mainly owing to these experiments that 

 great discoveries have taken place regarding the 

 nervous system, bone growth, the blood, digestion, 

 infections, serums, antitoxins and vaccinations ; 

 and without vivisection little or no progress 

 would have been made in physiology, pathology, 

 bacteriology and therapeutics. 



To forbid vivisection would be to hamper 

 science, do a mischief to the human race and 

 foster misplaced sympathj'. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



A SUMMER meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science will, 

 by recent vote of the executive committee of 

 the council, be held at Salt Lake City from 

 June 22 to 24, in conjunction with the annual 



