Apeil 17, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



limbs, and a momentary loss of consciousness, but 

 did not fall. 



He has now had no recurrence of convulsions, or 

 other epileptic symptoms whatever, for a period of 

 nearly six months. When he began working after 

 his discharge from the hospital, he noticed, in trying 

 to keep in mind the orders for deliveries to customers, 

 that his memory was not so good as before the in- 

 jury. He now follows the same occupation, and per- 

 forms the same duties in it, as before he was shot. 

 He feels perfectly well, and, by the test mentioned 

 above, is sure that his memory is constantly growing 

 more retentive. 



THE DEBATE ON VIVISECTION AT 

 OXFORD. .i 



In our last issue we gave a brief notice of the pro- 

 ceedings in an overflowing convocation at Oxford, 

 which resulted in a majority of 412 votes to 244 in 

 favor of the decree promulgated by the Hebdomadal 

 council. This decree had only an indirect bearing 

 upon the question of vivisection ; but as it was made 

 an occasion for a fresh, and, let us hope, a final, trial 

 of strength between the scientific and anti-scientific 

 forces of the university, it is desirable to furnish our 

 readers with a somewhat more full account of what 

 took place than we had time to print last week. See- 

 ing that the debate had clearly been organized with 

 no small amount of care on the side of the anti-vivi- 

 sectionists, and that the ablest as well as the most 

 authoritative speakers in Oxford who could support 

 their cause were put forward, we may regard the ar- 

 guments which were adduced as a fair example of 

 the best that can be said against vivisection by cul- 

 tured thought and cultured speech. We will there- 

 fore confine our remarks to what was said on this 

 side of the question. 



Eegarded as a piece of oratory, the speech of Canon 

 Liddon was, in our opinion, perfect; and the effect 

 of what we may term an artistic eloquence was en- 

 hanced by the appearance and costume of the speaker, 

 as well as by the appropriateness of his surroundings 

 in the densely crowded Sheldonian theatre. But 

 when we look from the manner to the matter of his 

 speech, we are unable to bestow such unqualified 

 praise, although we confess that even here we were 

 agreeably surprised by the judicious moderation of 

 its tone. His views, briefly stated, were, that so 

 long as we hold it morally lawful to kill animals for 

 food, or otherwise to use them for our own pur- 

 poses, so long must we in consistency hold, that, 

 under certain circumstances, it is morally lawful to 

 inflict pain upon animals for the benefit of man. The 

 special case of vivisection does not differ in principle 

 from other cases where pain is thus inflicted; but it 

 ought to be qualified by three conditions: it should 

 be resorted to as rarely as possible, it should be 

 guarded against the instinct of cruelty, and it should 

 be so used as not to demoralize spectators. With 

 1 From Nature of March 19. 



all this, every physiologist would of course agree. 

 The canon, however, proceeded to talk what, in the 

 strictest meaning of the word, must be termed non- 

 sense, when he affirmed that physiology might be 

 'divorced' from vivisection. That this statement 

 has gained currency among the anti-vivisectionists 

 does not alter its essentially unreasonable character. 

 It is perfectly true that in many departments of 

 physiological research vivisection is not required; but 

 it is no less true that in many other departments 

 vivisection is an unconditional necessity. This fact, 

 one would think, admits of being rendered obvious 

 to any impartial mind, howsoever ignorant of physi- 

 ological science; for, if this science consists in the 

 study of vital processes going on in the living organ- 

 ism, does it not obviously follow that some of them 

 can only be studied while actually taking place ? 

 How, for example, would it be possible to gain 

 any knowledge of the electrical and other changes 

 which occur in a gland during the process of secre- 

 tion, except by estimating these changes during 

 the act of secretion ? The gratuitous information 

 which physiologists receive from technically ignorant 

 sources, touching the nature and the value of their 

 own methods, can only suggest the presumption of 

 inexperienced youth when venturing to instruct a 

 maternal grandparent in the practical aspects of 

 oology. 



It appears that Professor Burdon-Sanderson had 

 pledged himself not to exhibit vivisections to his class 

 for the purposes of teaching, and for this concession 

 to the unreasoning prejudice of his opponents he re- 

 ceived a warm expression of gratitude from Canon 

 Liddon. Probably enough, under the circumstances 

 in which he is placed, the concession is a prudent 

 one ; but that it merited the eulogium which was be- 

 stowed upon it by Canon Liddon on moral grounds, 

 no man of common sense could very well suppose. 

 Demonstrations on the living subject, if performed in 

 a class-room at Oxford, would of course be always 

 performed on animals under the influence of anaes- 

 thetics ; and therefore the ' demoralizing ' effects upon 

 the minds of young men, which Canon Liddon takes 

 to have been averted by Professor Sanderson's con- 

 cession, can only be understood to consist in dis- 

 regarding the mawkish sentimentality which can- 

 not stand the sight of a painless dissection. This 

 kind of 'morality' may be regarded as tolerable in 

 a girl: in a man it is not tolerable, and deserves 

 the same kind of pitying contempt as is accorded 

 to personal cowardice, with which it is most nearly 

 allied. 



Canon Liddon, however, regretted that Professor 

 Sanderson had not further pledged himself to restrict 

 his experiments for the purposes of research to ani- 

 mals kept under the influence of anaesthetics during 

 the operations, and killed before recovering from their 

 anaesthesia. We have no doubt that Professor San- 

 derson might have complied with the first of these sug- 

 gestions without any serious detriment to his future 

 researches ; for, as a matter of fact, the cases in which 

 anaesthetics interfere with the progress of an experi- 

 ment, are, comparatively speaking, very rare indeed, 



