1875.] VIVISECTION. 3^7 



THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. 



[It was in November 1875 that my father gave his evidence 

 before the Royal Commission on Vivisection.* I have, there- 

 fore, placed together here the matter relating to this subject, 

 irrespective of date. Something has already been said of my 

 father's strong feeling with regard to suffering both in man 

 and beast. It was indeed one of the strongest feelings in his 

 nature, and was exemplified in matters small and great, in 

 his sympathy with the educational miseries of dancing dogs, 

 or in his horror at the sufferings of slaves. f 



The remembrance of screams, or other sounds heard in 

 Brazil, when he was powerless to interfere with what he 

 believed to be the torture of a slave, haunted him for years, 

 especially at night. In smaller matters, where he could inter- 

 fere, he did so vigorously. He returned one day from his 

 walk pale and faint from having seen a horse ill-used, and from 

 the agitation of violently remonstrating with the man. On 

 another occasion he saw a horse-breaker teaching his son to 

 ride, the little boy was frightened and the man was rough ; 

 my father stopped, and jumping out of the carriage reproved 

 the man in no measured terms. 



One other little incident may be mentioned, showing that 

 his humanity to animals was well known in his own neigh- 

 bourhood. A visitor, driving from Orpington to Down, told 



* See vol. i. p. 141. 



f He once made an attempt to free a patient in a mad-house, who (as 

 he wrongly supposed) was sane. He had some correspondence with the 

 gardener at the asylum, and on one occasion he found a letter from a 

 patient enclosed with one from the gardener. The letter was rational in 

 tone and declared that the writer was sane and wrongfully confined. 



My father wrote to the Lunacy Commissioners (without explaining the 

 source of his information) and in due time heard that the man had been 

 visited by the Commissioners, and that he was certainly insane. Some 

 time afterwards the patient was discharged, and wrote to thank my father 

 for his interference, adding that he had undoubtedly been insane, when 

 he wrote his former letter. 



