April 3, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



533 



and that many experimenters seem to take an 

 actual delight in the sufferings of their victims, 

 ■Gen. Sternberg characterized as a gross and un- 

 founded calumny. Vivisection is practiced by 

 members of the humane profession of science in 

 the interest of humanity. Those who deny that 

 anjf valuable resvilts have ever accrued from 

 vivisection simply show how ignorant they are, 

 and only prove themselves fit subjects for a 

 course of elementary lectures. 



The discovery of anti-toxin is one of the bless- 

 ings that has resulted from experiments upon 

 the lower animals. Scientists would have to 

 stop just where they are to-day if thej' were 

 prevented now altogether from the practice of 

 vivisection. In securing the anti-toxin, very 

 little suifering is inflicted upon the horse, from 

 which it is obtained, but it must then be tested 

 upon guinea pigs to determine its character and 

 potency. If we object to using guinea pigs for 

 this purpose, then we are compelled to act 

 blindly and must take our chances with the 

 ■children. 



In conclusion, Dr. Sternberg characterized as 

 well meaning, but ill advised, the efforts of 

 those people who seek, by organization, agita- 

 tion, and in every other way to hinder or ab- 

 solutely put a stop to a practice which is recog- 

 nized as necessary to any further advance in 

 scientific medicine. 



Dr. Baker considered the question from the 

 physiological point of view. He reviewed the 

 history of the study of the human body from the 

 ■earliest days down, showing the crude ideas 

 which were entertained on the subject by Hip- 

 pocrates and other physicians of long ago. He 

 traced the development down to the present 

 time, recounting the experiments which were 

 necessary, and which were made from time to 

 time, without which we would know no more 

 of the functions of the human body than did 

 <jalen. Harvey was an enthusiastic vivisec- 

 tionist, and if he had not been, he could never 

 have discovered the circulation of the blood. 

 That he did discover it resulted from the fact 

 that he cut into the thorax and saw the blood 

 coursing through the arteries and the heart 

 beating. To ask scientists to study anatomy 

 without seeing what is actually within the body 

 would be precisely the same as to ask a man to 



study the mechanism of a mill by standing out- 

 side and listening to the noise of the spindles. 



Dr. Salmon, Chief of Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry spoke of the role vivisection had played 

 in the discoveries of, 1, Anthrax by Koch, 2, 

 Chicken Cholera bacillus of Pasteur, 3, Im- 

 munity as first advocated by the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry and 4, the discoveries and re- 

 searches in Antitoxin based upon this doctrine. 

 He also cited the million of lives and money 

 saved by the investigations in pleuro-pneu- 

 monia, hog cholera, Texas fever and tuber- 

 culosis, which had become of international in- 

 terest, due to the exclusion of our cattle from 

 France to Germany. 



Mr. Kennedy, of the An ti- vivisection Society, 

 defined the term 'vivisection' so as not to include 

 inoculation, and claimed that their purpose was 

 to have governmental supervision over experi- 

 ments, and based his arguments solely on sen- 

 timental grounds, claiming that since many ex- 

 periments had failed therefore it was cruelty to 

 animals destroyed in these unsuccessful at- 

 tempts. 



Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles spoke of the utility 

 and results of animal experimentation in com- 

 parative invertebrate zoology as applied to hu- 

 man and comparative medicine. He made the 

 general statements. (1.) That all animals are in- 

 fested with animal parasites. (2.) Thart; some 

 parasitic diseases may be treated successfully 

 while others cannot ; in this later case we must 

 deal with prevention rather than cure. (3.) A 

 study of the embryological phases of the para- 

 sites is necessary before we can establish satis- 

 factory prophylactic measures. (4.) The data 

 regarding the embryology including life-his- 

 tory can be obtained only through animal 

 experimentation. 



The speaker next cited some of the better 

 known parasitic diseases of man and the. 

 domesticated animals and showed the various, 

 steps by which the zoologist had placed the 

 medical profession in a position to meet these 

 maladies. Triehine spiralic {Trichina spiralis) 

 was first described in 1835 as a harmless para- 

 site ; its life-history was discovered in 1850 but 

 not until 1860 was it shown to be the cause of 

 a well defined disease which up to that time had 

 been confounded with typhoid fever. Its life- 



