ACT 39 and 40 VIC. c. 77 



HE Royal Commission "On the Practice of 



* subjecting Live Animals to Experiments 

 for Scientific Purposes," was appointed on 22nd 

 June 1875. I ts members were — Lord Cardwell 

 (chairman), Lord Winmarleigh, Mr W. E. Forster, 

 Sir John Karslake, Mr Huxley, Mr (Sir John) 

 Erichsen, and Mr Hutton. Between 5th July and 

 30th December, 53 witnesses were examined, and 

 6551 questions were put and answered. The 

 report of the Commission bears date 8th January 

 1876, and in that year the present Act received 

 the Royal Assent. 



The evidence before the Commission was all, 

 or nearly all, concerned with physiology, with 

 the work of Magendie, Claude Bernard, and Sir 

 Charles Bell, the action of curare, the Handbook 

 of the Physiological Laboratory, the teaching of 

 physiology, and so forth. Very little was said of 

 pathology ; and, of bacteriology, next to nothing. 

 Practically, physiology alone came before the 

 Commissioners ; and such experiments in physi- 

 ology as are now, the youngest of them, more 

 than a quarter of a century old. 



Bacteriology, at the time of the passing of 



319 



