i88s.] 
A dvancement of Medicine by Research. 
259 
II. THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 
OF MEDICINE BY RESEARCH : ITS TASK 
AND ITS OPPONENTS.* 
S HE medical profession and no small part of the scien- 
tific world have now for years endured the foulest, the 
most outrageous calumnies, and the grossest mis- 
representations. The object of their assailants has been to 
render physiological research practically an impossibility. 
For in these days it must surely be admitted that any natural 
science which is deprived of the power of experimentation, 
and compelled to depend upon the mere observation of acci- 
dentally occurring phenomena, is in bondage, and cannot 
advance. These attempts — unfortunately too successful — 
have been conducted with a wonderful amount of energy and 
persistence, and with a remarkable degree of unscrupulous- 
ness. Money has been freely given, tracts have been scat- 
tered broadcast, advertisements have appeared in the 
political and literary press, at railway-stations, and on 
hoardings. Ledtures have been delivered, and meetings 
have been held under pretence of discussion. In fadt all 
the elaborate machinery of political agitation has been put, 
and kept in adtion. We may here ask how it is that the art 
of resisting and opposing “ movements ” — as they are called 
— has not been more carefully studied ? 
Medical men and non-medical biologists have meantime 
practically kept silence. They have, indeed, replied ably 
and triumphantly to the calumnies of their assailants ; but 
these replies have appeared merely in professional and sci- 
entific journals which do not fall into the hands of the 
outside world. The leaders of the agitation, the “ honorary” 
secretaries, &c., no doubt studied these replies, but very judi- 
ciously passed them over in silence. Hence the lay public, 
hearing the charges and meeting with no defence, fell into 
the not unnatural mistake of supposing that none had been 
offered, or was even possible. It was supposed that the 
* Reports of the Meeting at the College of Physicians. 
Vivisedtion Scientifically and Ethically Considered in Prize Essays. By 
J. Macaulay, M.D., Rev. Brewin Grant, B.A., and A. Wall, L.R.C.P. 
Edinburgh. London : Japp and Co. 
The British Medical Association and the Vivisedtion Bill. By A. de Noe 
Walker, M.D. London : M. Walbrook, 
