466 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxix 



However, I will not trouble your Lordship with any further 

 indication of the difficulties which, as I imagine, will attend the 

 attempt to carry the Minute into operation, if instruction is to 

 be given in Physiology, or even in general Biology. 



The upshot of the matter was that the Minute was al- 

 tered so as to refer solely to future courses, and on February 

 20 he wrote to Mr. Forster : — 



I cannot allow you to leave office without troubling you with 

 the expression of my thanks for the very great kindness and con- 

 sideration which I have received from you on all occasions, and 

 particularly in regard to the question of vivisection, on which I 

 ventured to some extent, though I think not very widely or 

 really, to differ from you. 



The modification which you were good enough to make in 

 your minute removed all my objections to undertaking the Sum- 

 mer Course. 



And I am sure that if that course had happened to be a 

 physiological one I could do all I want to do in the way of ex- 

 periment, without infringing the spirit of your minute, though I 

 confess that the letter of it would cause me more perplexity. 



As to his general attitude to the subject, it must be 

 noted, as said above in the letter to Sir J. Donnelly, that he 

 never followed any line of research involving experiments 

 on living and conscious animals. Though, as will be seen 

 from various letters, he considered such experiments justi- 

 fiable, his personal feelings prevented him from performing 

 them himself. Like Charles Darwin, he was very fond of 

 animals, and our pets in London found in him an indul- 

 gent master. 



But if he did not care to undertake such experiments 

 personally, he held it false sentiment to blame others who 

 did disagreeable work for the good of humanity, and false 

 logic to allow pain to be inflicted in the cause of sport while 

 forbidding it for the cause of science. (See his address on 

 " Instruction in Elementary Physiology," Coll. Essays, iii. 

 300 seq.) Indeed, he declared that he trusted to the fox- 

 hunting instincts of the House of Commons rather than to 

 any real interest in science in that body, for a moderate 

 treatment of the question of vivisection. 



