PREFACE 



T^OR twelve years it was the writer's business, 

 * as Secretary to the Association for the 

 Advancement of Medicine by Research, to know 

 something about experiments on animals, and to 

 follow the working of the Act of 1876; and to 

 give facts and references to a very large number 

 of applicants. Believing that an account of these 

 experiments, and of the conditions imposed upon 

 them by the Act, might serve a useful purpose, 

 he proposed to the Council of the Association 

 that he should write a book on the subject. The 

 Council accepted this proposal ; and decided that 

 the book should be written for general reading, 

 that it should not be anonymous, and that it 

 should be published without reserve. 



It was of course a doubtful and embarrassing 

 task. But, from twelve years' experience of the 

 things that are said by the chief opponents of 

 all experiments on animals, he knew that there 

 was only one way of doing it — to give the original 

 authorities, the plain facts, the very words, chapter 

 and verse for everything. 



Among those who kindly revised the proofs 

 were Dr Rose Bradford and Prof. Starling, who 



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