1875.1 VIVISECTION. 379 



was introduced to the House of Commons by Messrs. Lyon 

 Playfair, Walpole, and Ashley. It was however, withdrawn 

 on the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into 

 the whole question. The Commissioners were Lords Card- 

 well and Winmarleigh, Mr. W. E. Forster, Sir J. B. Karslake, 

 Mr. Huxley, Professor Erichssen, and Mr. R. H. Hutton : 

 they commenced their inquiry in July, 1875, and the Report 

 was published early in the following year. 



In the early summer of 1876, Lord Carnarvon's Bill, en- 

 titled, "An Act to amend the Law relating to Cruelty to 

 Animals," was introduced. It cannot be denied that the 

 framers of this Bill, yielding to the unreasonable clamour of 

 the public, went far beyond the recommendations of the Royal 

 Commission. As a correspondent in ' Nature ' put it (1876, 

 p. 248), "the evidence on the strength of which legislation 

 was recommended went beyond the facts, the Report went 

 beyond the evidence, the Recommendations beyond the 

 Report ; and the Bill can hardly be said to have gone be- 

 yond the Recommendations ; but rather to have contradicted 

 them." 



The legislation which my father worked for, as described 

 in the following letters, was practically what was introduced 

 as Dr. Lyon Playfair's Bill.] 



C. Darwin to Mrs. Litchfield* 



January 4, 1875. 

 My dear H. — Your letter has led me to think over vivi- 

 section (I wish some new word like anass-section could be 

 invented f) for some hours, and I will jot down my conclusions, 

 which will appear very unsatisfactory to you. I have long 

 thought physiology one of the greatest of sciences, sure sooner, 



* His daughter. 



f He communicated to ' Nature ' (Sep. 30, 1880) an article by Dr. 

 Wilder, of Cornell University, an abstract of which was published (p. 517). 

 Dr. Wilder advocated the use of the word ' Callisection ' for painless opera- 

 tions on animals. 



