678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of each throb of the heart, while by light galvanic touches he stirs 

 this part or quiets that ; he takes note of the rise and fall of the chest- 

 walls, as they quicken or grow slow, as they wax or wane, under this 

 influence or that ; he gathers the juice which pours from one or another 

 gland ; he divides this nerve, he stimulates that, and marks the result 

 of each ; he brings subtile poisons to bear on the whole frame, or on 

 parts ; and, having done what he wished to do, having obtained, in 

 the shape of careful notes or delicate tracings, answers to the questions 

 he wished to put, he finishes a painless death by the removal of all the 

 blood from the body, or by any other means that best suit him at the 

 time. I am not exaggerating when I say that this is at the present 

 day one of the commonest forms of vivisectional experiment ; this is 

 what newspaper writers speak of as " torture," and, on the strength 

 of it, accuse cultivated physiologists of barbaric cruelty. 



A dog under chloroform or morphia may be brought to very nearly 

 the same condition as a rabbit under chloral ; but, as far as my ex- 

 perience goes, the same long duration of complete quiescence is main- 

 tained with greater difficulty. Dogs sometimes howl under chloro- 

 form or morphia when nothing is being done to them, and under cir- 

 cumstances in which they can be suffering no pain. At the moment 

 when the chloroform begins to take effect upon them, when probably 

 confused carnivorous visions chase through their brains, the howling 

 is often excessive. Any one who knows any thing about the adminis- 

 tration of chloroform to human beings, is well aware how frequent 

 cries and noises are in the stage of excitement, and how little depend- 

 ence can be placed on them as signs of pain. 



In a large number of cases, then, where anaesthetics of one kind or 

 another are used, vivisectional experiments cause no pain at all ; and, 

 as far as I know, in this country, at least, physiologists always use 

 anaesthetics where they can. They do so not only for the sake of the 

 animal, but also for the sake of the experiment itself. Unless they are 

 studying actual manifestations of feeling, pain, with all its conse- 

 quences, is a disturbing element which must by all possible means be 

 eliminated, if the experiment is to have its due value. The apparent 

 lifelessness of the animal is the physiologist's opportunity ; struggling 

 limbs would utterly defeat his aims, and a sudden start might wreck 

 his whole experiment. Chloroform and other anaesthetics have im- 

 mensely lessened human suffering, not only by simply diminishing 

 pain, but even still more by putting it in the power of the surgeon to 

 perform operations which he otherwise would not dare to attempt. 

 In the same way they have powerfully aided the progress of physi- 

 ology, by rendering possible new experiments, and by allowing the 

 investigator to analyze securely phenomena which otherwise would, 

 perhaps forever, have remained confused through the disturbances 

 caused by pain. 



There are some experiments, however, requiring vivisection, in 



