464 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xxix 



fended Brown Sequard, that I might expect to meet with every 

 description of abuse and misrepresentation if such demonstra- 

 tions were given. 



It did not appear to me, however, that the latter considera- 

 tion ought to weigh with me, and I took such a course as I 

 believe is defensible against everything but misrepresentation. 



I gave strict instructions to the Demonstrators who assisted 

 me that no such experiments were to be performed, unless the 

 animal were previously rendered insensible to pain either by 

 destruction of the brain or by the administration of anaesthetics, 

 and I have every reason to believe that my instructions were 

 carried out. I do not see what I can do beyond this, or how I 

 can give Mr. Forster any better guarantee than is given in my 

 assurance that my dislike to the infliction of pain both as a 

 matter of principle and of feeling is quite as strong as his own 

 can be. 



If Mr. Forster is not satisfied with this assurance, and with 

 its practical result that our experiments are made only on non- 

 sentient animals, then I am afraid that my position as teacher 

 of Physiology must come to an end. 



If I am to act in that capacity I cannot consent to be pro- 

 hibited from showing the circulation in a frog's foot because the 

 frog is made slightly uncomfortable by being tied up for that 

 purpose; nor from showing the fundamental properties of 

 nerves, because extirpating the brain of the same animal inflicts 

 one-thousandth part of the prolonged suffering which it under- 

 goes when it makes its natural exit from the world by being 

 slowly forced down the throat of a duck, and crushed and 

 asphyxiated in that creature's stomach. 



I shall be very glad to wait upon Mr. Forster if he desires 

 to see me. Of course I am most anxious to meet his views as 

 far as I can, consistently with my position as a person bound 

 to teach properly any subject in which he undertakes to give 

 instruction. But I am quite clear as to the amount of freedom 

 of action which it is necessary I should retain, and if you will 

 kindly communicate the contents of this letter to the Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the Council, he will be able to judge for himself how 

 far his sense of what is right will leave me that freedom, or 

 render it necessary for me to withdraw from what I should 

 regard as a false position. 



But there was a further and more vital question. He 

 had already declared through Major (now Sir John) Don- 



