112 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
lias also been chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of 
UFAW, which I represent here today : 
Medical Research Council, 
National Institute for Medical Research, 
London, England, August 27, 1962. 
Dear Huhe : You asked me for my personal opinion, as an experimental biol- 
ogist, on the nature and working of the Home Office regulations for research on 
Let me say first that I am in favor of regulations of this general kind. They 
restrict the performance of animal experiments to those qualified to execute 
them. They insure certain basic standards of care for animals of all kinds, 
not only for those which arouse the sentimental interest of the public. They 
also insure that eperiments which may give pain or discomfort are not lightly or 
hastily undertaken. The fact that there are forms to fill in and an inspectorate 
to satisfy brings it home to the beginner in research that doing experiments on 
living animals is a serious business. 
As to the exact form that the Home Office regulations take, there is of course 
much that could be improved upon ; but I have never found that the redtape was 
more than a nuisance, and in my experience the inspectors whose duty it is to 
enforce the act have been helpful and cooperative. On one occasion a number 
of years ago they actually helped me to get improved animal accommodation, 
by making critical comments on the animal quarters then at my disposal. 
Finally, I do not agree that medical research work in this country is handi- 
capped by Home Office regulations. 
Yours sincerely, 
(Signed) P. B. Medawar. 
Prof. C. A. Keele, who is professor of pharmacology and therapeu- 
tics in the University of London, and an authority on pain, would also 
have come to testify if he had been able to get here. He writes to me 
as follows : 
Department of Pharmacology, 
Middlesex Hospital Medical School, 
London, England, August 22, 1962. 
Dear Major Hume : Here are my comments, which perhaps you would like to 
read into the record in Washington. 
Our Home Office control of animal experimentation is, in my view, highly suc- 
cessful in preventing irresponsible persons inflicting unnecessary cruelty and in 
no way impedes legitimate research. We have always had cordial relations with 
the Home Office inspectors and have been only too glad to benefit from their ad- 
vice on animal welfare. 
The present system of control works in such a way as to create the right 
attitude toward animal experiments so that research workers come to realize 
that only by treating animals properly can results of scientific value be obtained. 
In my opinion lack of control leads to much worthless experimentation which 
is not only inhumane, but obstructive to scientific progress. In saying this I am 
sure that I am voicing the views of the vast majority of those who carry out 
animal experiments in this country. 
Yours sincerely, 
( Signed ) C. A. Keele. 
Dr. John Baker, F.R.S., reader in cytology at the University of 
Oxford, is of interest because he is the founder and honorable secre- 
tary of the Society for Freedom in Science. He formed this society 
at a time when some leftwing physicists were attempting to impose on 
British science a regimentation of a kind which prevails in Com- 
munist countries. The society has done its work and is now being 
wound up. Dr. Baker would have come here to testify if he had been 
able, and writes to me as follows : 
_ My Dear Hume : I fully agree with you that control of experimentation on 
higher animals is highly desirable, and indeed necessary, to prevent irresponsi- 
ble performance of painful experiments. As you know, I was the founder of 
