July 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



89 



whether the subjects were conscious or un- 

 <;onscious of pain.' This misconception 

 tended to produce an excited state of popu- 

 lar feeling which was intensified by the 

 performance, at the meeting of the British 

 Medical Society in 1874, of some experi- 

 ments on dogs, showing the difference be- 

 tween alcohol and absinthe in their physio- 

 logical action. The excitement culminated 

 in the appointment of a Roj^al Commission 

 to inquire into the subject. The result of 

 the investigation was a report which cannot 

 be better described than in the language of 

 Lord Sherbrooke (better known as the 

 Eight Honorable Eobert Lowe) : " The 

 commission entirely acquitted English phys- 

 iologists of the charge of cruelty. They 

 pronounced a well-merited eulogium on the 

 humanity of the medical profession in 

 England. They pointed out that medical 

 students were extremly sensitive to the in- 

 fliction of pain upon animals, and that the 

 feeling of the public at large was penetrated 

 by the same sentiment. * * * They 

 then proceeded to consider to what restric- 

 tion they should subject the humane and 

 excellent persons in whose favor they had 

 so decidedly reported. They acquitted the 

 accused and sentenced them to be under 

 the surveillance of the police for life." 

 Eemarkable as was this conclusion of the 

 commission, the action of Parliament based 

 upon it was still more extraordinary, for a 

 law was enacted which, taken in connection 

 with the previous legislation, has brought 

 about a state of things in England which 

 has been well described as one '' in which it 

 is penal to use domestic animals any way 

 cruelly, but in which any one may torture 

 wild creatures in whatever fashion he likes, 

 provided it is not for scientific purposes.''^ 



The amount of mischief which may be 

 produced by this English law depends very 

 much upon the good judgment of the Home 

 Secretary, to whom its enforcement is en- 

 trusted. The most eminent members of 



the medical profession in England have at 

 times been refused a license to perform ex- 

 periments which they declared to be of the 

 greatest importance for medical science, 

 and, in general, it may be said that the sys- 

 tem of licensing and government inspection 

 under which biological research work must 

 be conducted is, vinder the most favorable 

 conditions, a source of serious annoyance 

 to investigators, while it does not secure 

 any better guarantee for the humane treat- 

 ment of animals than is afforded by the 

 character of the man engaged in the work. 



The system, moreover, fails entirely to 

 satisfy the anti-vivisectionists, who, in sup- 

 port of their demand for a prohibitory law, 

 continually circulate the most exaggerated 

 and perverted accounts of experiments per- 

 formed in licensed and inspected labora- 

 tories. 



The first outbreak of the anti- vivisection 

 agitation in this country occurred in New 

 York some fifteen or sixteen years ago, 

 when the State Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals, under the leadership of 

 Henry Bergh, attempted to secure the pas- 

 sage of a law prohibiting the practice of vivi- 

 section. The agitation was conducted with 

 so much fanaticism, and the method of gar- 

 bled quotskition employed by Mr. Bergh was 

 exposed so effectively by the late Dr. J. C. 

 Dalton, that the Legislature not only de- 

 clined to enact any restrictive laws, but 

 maintained in full force an amendment to 

 the general law against cruelty to animals 

 adopted in 1867, providing that "nothing 

 in this act contained shall be construed to 

 prohibit or interfere with any properly con- 

 ducted scientific experiments or investiga- 

 tions, which experiments shall be performed 

 only under the authority of the faculty of 

 some regularly incorporated medical college 

 or university of the State of New York." 



New York has thus set an excellent ex- 

 ample to her sister States in protecting her 

 men of science, in their attempts to enlarge 



