730 
Notes . 
[November, 
to the scientific analyses of the vivisectors Fritsche, Hitzig, and 
Ferrier, ‘ we can pass from the effect to the cause, and assign to 
paralysis a central lesion at a well-determined spot, so that 
trephining at this spot may cause the paralysis to disappear.’ 
The experiments of Galvani and his followers on frogs have 
taught us to estimate the effect of the electric current on nerve 
and & muscle, and shown us how to apply galvanisation to the 
prevention of the paralysis which ensues from the destruction of 
the motor nerves. The numerous patients relieved of nervous 
diseases ‘ by this admirable therapeutic agent have no call to 
speak ill of such vivisectors as Galvani, Aldini, Volta, Magendie, 
Marshall Hall, Remak, Du Bois Reymond, and many others, 
since it is to their discoveries that the relief of their ills is owing. 
Would Galvani have made his discoveries had he refrained from 
dissecting frogs ? Would the electric current have been applied 
to atrophied limbs if it had not been found that the action of this 
current in dogs was salutary and not dangerous ? ’ Certain 
diseases of the urinary organs have been studied in animals. 
The treatment of sympathetic ophthalmia by section of the 
ciliary nerves of the diseased side has been shown to be advan- 
tageous by experiment, and the results yielded by experiments on 
do^s and rabbits have been applied to patients. The correct 
treatment of cataract has been similarly learned. Encouraging 
progress is made by vivisecttion in the study of the formation of 
callus, of pseudarthrosis, of osseous grafts, of regeneration of 
bone by periosteum,— subjects of great importance in surgery. 
The vaso-motor theory, which plays a large part in the medicine 
and surgery of the present day, has been established by experi- 
ments on the great sympathetic and the rabbit’s ear. Dr. Brown- 
Sequard has furnished useful ideas relating to epilepsy and 
tetanus from the results of painful experiments on dogs and 
^uinea-pigs. Trial on animals is useful to determine the action 
of new medicines, for ‘ we do not wish to experiment on man at 
the risk of poisoning him, where animals can be employed,” — 
so with poisons. Finally, if we deprive savants of the right to 
submit living animals to experiment, we shall go back beyond 
the days of Galen. ‘ If all those who have been relieved— verily 
made to live again,’— says Dr. Richet, ‘ by modern medicine and 
surgery, could speak, they would confound those who load vivi- 
section with calumny, and they would hold that their own life 
and sufferings weighed more in the balance than the sufferings 
of those animals which have been sacrificed in laboratories to 
the lasting benefit of man.’ 
Anti-Vivisection. — “We observe that a memorial recently pre- 
sented to Mr. Gladstone, urging him to do all in his power for 
the absolute abolition of vivisection, was signed by ‘ one hundred 
representative men;’ among them Cardinal Manning, Prince 
Lucien Bonaparte, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, James 
Anthony Froude, John Ruskin ; the head-masters of Rugby, 
