Mat 21, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



761 



self an experimenter, but convinced beyond 

 recall of the absolute necessity of animal es- 

 perimentation, tlie author is a veteran in its 

 propaganda, and no one writes with fuller 

 knowledge of the facts on both sides, with 

 keener conviction of the correctness of his 

 position, and with a more trenchant pen. 

 With him it is " a common-sense, a scientific, 

 a moral and a Christian duty to promote 

 experimental research," just as " to hinder it, 

 and still more, to stop it would be a crime 

 against the human race itself, and also against 

 animals." 



The eminence of Dr. Keen as a surgeon adds 

 all the more value to his opinion of the bene- 

 fits which human surgery has derived from 

 experimentation. A striking chapter in the 

 book is that on modern antiseptic surgery and 

 the role of experimentation in its discovery 

 and development. It gives a graphic picture, 

 first of the pre-antiseptic surgery with its 

 terrors of suppuration, secondary hemorrhage, 

 erysipelas, lock-jaw, blood poisoning, gangrene 

 and high death-rate — a picture all the more 

 graphic because of the author's experience with 

 its realities; then of Lister's work, with his 

 experiments upon one horse and one calf; and 

 finally -of the results, with the virtual elimina- 

 tion of the disastrous sequelss of operations, 

 the extraordinary reduction in mortality, and 

 the wide extension of surgical treatment to 

 formerly forbidden fields. Shortly after the 

 battle of Gettysburg the author was called in 

 one night to five cases of secondary hemor- 

 rhage; since 18Y6, when he began the practise 

 of the antiseptic method, he has not seen as 

 many such cases in all the years that have 

 elapsed, nor has he seen a single case of hos- 

 pital gangrene. Formerly healing by "first 

 intention " was so rare that its occurrence was 

 regarded as a triumph; now its absence is a 

 disaster. Formerly a famous surgeon lost 

 two out of every three of his patients after 

 the operation of ovariotomy; now the mortal- 

 ity is often less than one per cent. The skull 

 cavity and the abdomen with its organs were 

 once avoided by the surgeon; now they are 

 fearlessly entered. " The only question," says 

 the author, " is, should Lister have made this 

 final test first on a horse and a calf, or on two 



human beings? Can any one with a sane, 

 well-balanced mind hesitate as to the answer? " 

 " In the past thirty years," he continues, 

 " experimental research has produced a more 

 fruitful harvest of good to animals and to 

 mankind than the clinical observations during 

 thirty preceding centuries." 



To the present reviewer that aspect of the 

 antivivisection agitation that is by far the 

 most interesting is the psychology of it. It is 

 characterized preeminently by an exaggerated 

 love for animals, woeful ignorance, a prone- 

 ness to make strong pronouncements without 

 adequate knowledge, a disregard of facts, a 

 lack of logical reasoning, a tendency to per- 

 vert the truth and to ascribe unworthy mo- 

 tives to scientific men, and a general lack of 

 moral balance in propaganda. These qualities 

 have been demonstrated so frequently that 

 they have come to be expected as a matter of 

 course in those who oppose the practise of ani- 

 mal experimentation. As a fact it is rare that 

 one fails to find some of these qualities in all 

 such persons. Dr. Keen has been impressed 

 by this and he states the attitude of many of 

 us when he says : " I have been compelled to 

 conclude that it is not safe to accept any state- 

 ment which appears in antivivisection liter- 

 ature as true, or any quotation or translation 

 as correct, until I have compared them with 

 the originals and verified their accuracy for 

 myself." 



The four chapters here devoted to the anti- 

 vivisectionists are entitled " Misstatements of 

 Antivivisectionists," " Misstatements of Anti- 

 vivisectionists Again," " The Influence of 

 Antivivisection on Character " and " The Anti- 

 vivisection Exhibition in Philadelphia in 

 1914." These papers teem with specific in- 

 stances illustrative of the peculiarities of the 

 antivivisectionists, many of them dealing with 

 the classical, oft-quoted examples of supposed 

 barbarities of the experimenters. To any 

 one who has read of these and who supposes 

 them to be as charged in the indictment, the 

 reading of the present book is highly recom- 

 mended, for it shows how often and how 

 wickedly the truth has been perverted for 

 partisan purposes. Dr. Keen handles without 

 gloves the opponents of scientific progress. 



