January 10, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



47 



legislature by the propagandists, but, hav- 

 ing been vigorously opposed by medical and 

 scientific men powerfully aided by such 

 public-spirited citizens as the president of 

 Harvard University, the president of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 

 the Bishop of Massachusetts, they have 

 liitherto failed ignominiously. All sorts of 

 restrictions have been suggested, and in the 

 latest bill it vs^as proposed to endow the 

 agents of any society for the prevention of 

 cruelty to animals -with powers of entrance 

 and search, so that they might visit any 

 laboratory at any time, taking names and 

 othenvise interfering mth the freedom of 

 research and instruction, as well as infring- 

 ing upon the individual liberty of persons 

 engaged in experimentation upon animals. 

 If such a law had been passed, the subjec- 

 tion of science to propaganda in Massachu- 

 setts would to-day be even more complete 

 and more intolerable than it has been in 

 England since 1875. 



I need not recount the recent attempt of 

 those engaged in this propaganda to secure 

 restrictive legislation for the District of Co- 

 lumbia. Suffice it to say that the attempt 

 was one of the boldest and most dangerous 

 attacks upon the freedom of research which 

 has ever been made in America. 



Nor is this all. Some of those engaged 

 in the anti-vivisection propaganda seek, at 

 the same time that they would abolish vivi- 

 section, to do away with all dissection of 

 whatever sort in public schools of whatever 

 grade. No one in his senses desires vivisec- 

 tion in the public schools except, perhaps, 

 in normal schools devoted to the education 

 of teachers. But dissection of clams, 

 ■oysters, lobsters, starfish, sea-urchins, 

 worms, snails and possibly fishes and frogs, 

 are not only not necessarily out of place 

 but may even be very useful and desirable 

 in high schools and normal schools. My 

 own feeling is that in grammar schools and 

 all schools lower than high schools instruc- 



tion should be confined almost wholly to 

 the external structure of plants and ani- 

 mals, with their occurrence, habits, habitats 

 and the like ; but I see no good reason why 

 in high schools and normal schools the ele- 

 ments, at least, of the internal structure of 

 invertebrates and even of certain verte- 

 brates may not well be taught. I have 

 taken some pains to secure upon this point 

 the opinion of a number of teachers of nat- 

 ural science in normal schools, most of 

 whom have also been teachers in schools of 

 lower grade, and with one or two exceptions 

 I find that they are stx'ongly of the opinion 

 that a moderate amount of dissection is not 

 only desirable but almost indispensable. 



Yet in 1895 the American Humane Asso- 

 ciation published in Chicago a report on 

 vivisection and dissection in public schools, 

 in which various excellent persons unhesi- 

 tatingly affirmed that dissection in public 

 schools is superfluous, and that physiology 

 can be well enough taught by means of 

 manikins, pictures and the like. In par- 

 ticular, several bishops, apparently regard- 

 ing themselves as qualified to give evidence 

 on this subject, stated without hesitation 

 that all that is necessary in the practical 

 teaching of physiology is illustrated books, 

 manikins, etc., some even going fur- 

 ther and saying that dissection must in- 

 evitably blunt the sensibilities and corrupt 

 the character of the young. Cardinal Gib- 

 bons, of Baltimore, however, was more 

 cautious when he said : " I am inclined to 

 think that sufficient instruction can be im- 

 parted by the use of illustrations and mani- 

 kins. I think it advisable to give children 

 the knowledge, as Scripture does, of the 

 .God-given power of man over the lower 

 forms of life; but they should be warned 

 that this power is not absolute, arbitrary or 

 cruel. ' ' In reading the pronouncements of 

 the American bishops referred to, one is re- 

 minded of the occasions for Huxley's fre- 

 quent and contemptuous sneers at the 



