:426 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 64. 



never set up a battery. The young astrono- 

 mer sees the stars and planets themselves 

 through the telescope. So do serious stu- 

 dents of biology or medicine see for them- 

 selves the structure of the body, see for 

 themselves the workings of that structure 

 through the experiments of the physiologi- 

 cal or pathological laboratoi-y or lecture 

 room, just as medical students, they see 

 disease in the wards of hospitals, and look 

 on or assist at the surgical operations per- 

 formed upon men, women and children. 

 No models and pictures can replace such 

 teaching. From this last fact there is no 

 escape. It is rooted in the constitution of 

 the human mind. JSTo mother would know- 

 ingly allow her childern to ride behind a 

 locomotive engineer who had never seen the 

 workings of an actual engine. Surely the 

 physician who does his best to guide the 

 living mechanism along the path of safety 

 should be taught its natural workings as 

 exactly and as fully as possible; otherwise 

 he may understand its working in disease. 

 Happily the cases where the animals seen 

 at demonstrations must undergo more than 

 brief or trival pain are even rarer than in 

 cases of pure research. In the very great 

 majority of demonstrations the creatures 

 can be kept free of pain until they are 

 killed. As to whether or no, under given 

 circumstances of research or teaching, an 

 experiment involving pain should be per- 

 formed, is a matter which should rest with 

 the responsible expert, by whom or under 

 whose direction the thing would be done. 

 Otherwise, in a matter involving the inter- 

 est of the community, those who know 

 ■would be directed by those who do not 

 know. For any experiment improperly 

 conducted the person responsible is liable 

 under the general laws against the mal- 

 treatment of animals. In fact, American 

 biologists and physicians are no more in- 

 clined than other members of the com- 

 munity to culpable negligence toward their 



fellow- creatures. The work of science goes 

 on ; but those who are responsible desire, 

 and see to it, that the work be painless, so 

 far as admissible. No intelligent man or 

 woman should give heed to the denunci- 

 ations of those few ill-informed or head- 

 strong persons who have been drawn into 

 one of the less wise of the agitations which 

 beset modern society. 



Signed : S. Weir Mitchell, J. G. Curtis, W. 

 H. Howell, H. P. Bowditch, W. T. Porter, 

 J. W. Warren, E. H. Chittenden, V. C. 

 Vaughan, John Marshall, S. B. Ward, 

 William Pepper, S. C. Busey, Henry M. 

 Lyman, E. G. Janewaj', Ch. Wardell Stiles, 

 William Patten, William T. Sedgwick, H. 

 C. Ernst, Theobald Smith, A. C. Abbott, J. 

 J. Abel, A. R. Ciishny, H. C. Wood, Frank 

 Baker, Harrison Allen, G. A. Piersol, 

 C. S. Minot, Henry P. Osborn, C. O. Whit- 

 man, William H. Welch, T. M. Prndden, 

 R. H. Fitz, George M. Sternberg, J. Eufus 

 Tryon, Walter J. Wyman, Daniel E. Sal- 

 mon, G. Brown Goode, W. W. Keen, Wil- 

 liam Osier, J. Collins Warren, W. T. 

 Councilman. 



CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS: AN ILLUSION 

 CONCERNING BEST. 

 Twenty centuries of investigation have 

 dispelled many illusions. In examining 

 the folklore of the world it is found that 

 the lower the stage of culture the greater 

 the number of these illusions. Since sys- 

 tematic researches were inaugurated by the 

 Greeks many have been explained, yet some 

 remain, even in the scientific world of to- 

 day. On the threshold of our work it be- 

 comes necessarj' to dispel an illusion deve- 

 loped by primordial men and handed down 

 through sequent generations to the present 

 time, so that even now there are few minds 

 unclouded by its mystic presence. When 

 the ball is in the hand it seems to be at rest ; 

 when it flies from the hand motion seems 

 to be created ; and when it stops upon the 



