SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1885. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 If our confidence in posterity be not mis- 

 placed, it will look with peculiar interest upon 

 the hobb} T -horses of our day, particularly those 

 used by some persons, with man} T external 

 claims to consideration, in their raids upon 

 physiologists and their work. One of these 

 animals has recently been ridden in an attack 

 upon a deceptive figure which was labelled 

 with the name of Professor Martin of Johns 

 Hopkins university. The arena as well as the 

 figure, which, of course, was demolished, was 

 furnished by the Zoophilist, falsely so called, 

 — a journal supported by some antivivisection 

 societies in England. But the real Professor 

 Martin has come upon the scene with a little 

 pamphlet, which is not only a ' correction,' 

 but a severe ' castigation ' and an ' appeal,' as 

 its sub-title tells us. 



During some nine years, Dr. Martin has 

 been the esteemed head of the department of 

 biology in Johns Hopkins universit}\ Both 

 by him, and by enthusiastic pupils working 

 under his direction, many interesting researches 

 have been undertaken, and some very impor- 

 tant results have been obtained. One of the 

 most valuable ' finds ' is an admirable method 

 for the study of the mammalian heart, isolated 

 from all the influences of the body. This 

 method involves the killing of the entire ani- 

 mal, except the heart and the lungs, which are 

 needed for the artificial aeration of the blood. 

 With the exception of the brief period required 

 for administration of the narcotic or anaesthetic, 

 the entire procedure is painless. The only pos- 

 sible exception is found in two instances where 

 curare was used to exclude and control the 

 action of the narcotics usually employed ; and 

 here the period of possible pain is very brief, 

 lasting only until the blood-supply to the brain 

 can be cut off. These experiments are not 



No. 112. — 1885. 



merely of the greatest theoretical interest, but 

 their practical importance is immense and far- 

 reaching. Already it has been possible to 

 determine that fever temperatures of the blood 

 are alone sufficient to act powerfully upon the 

 heart, and alter its work. The hope which this 

 form of study holds out, not only of increasing 

 our understanding of the heart's action, but 

 also of giving us much exacter knowledge of 

 the action of drugs upon that organ, and the 

 great value of such knowledge, must be evident 

 to every candid person. 



The Baltimore investigations have all been 

 published in detail : no secret has been made 

 of the method, and the work has had all the 

 publicity which the ordinarj' channels open to 

 such communications permit. The Zoophilist 

 people met with one of the reports in the Phil- 

 osophical transactions of the Ro}~al society-, 

 and proceeded to give a garbled version, with 

 comments, according to the method familiar to 

 all who have read any of the peculiar writings 

 of the antivivisectionists. This was well 

 spiced with allusions to the barbarity permitted 

 in ' far-off' America, and to the callousness of 

 Dr. Martin, with ' his learned jargon and sup- 

 posed results.' The reply will be found to be 

 an honest and vigorous protest, which will have 

 the hearty approval of every right-minded and 

 clear-headed man. It not only gives a plain 

 statement of the maliciousness and injustice 

 and ignorance of his accusers, whose lies he 

 numbers as he nails them, but it also contains 

 a manly appeal to those among whom he has 

 worked and taught, to stand by him, to protect 

 him and others from this form of abusive mis- 

 representation ; and he appeals, furthermore, 

 to the officers and committee of the society, 

 whose mouthpiece the Zoophilist is said to be. 

 The list contains many names of those in good 

 repute and in high places (there are not only 

 ecclesiastical and courtly dignitaries among 

 them, but, mirabile dictu, scientific worthies as 



