26a Advancement of Medicine by Research. [May, 
anxious to crush the latter. We are sorry to see the faculty 
falling into the trap, and thus, apparently at least, abandoning 
their allies. 
We turn to another phase of the subject. Sir W. Jenner 
is reported to have said — “ There was no desire on the part 
of those who had worked in the formation of that Associa- 
tion to evade the law; there was no desire on their part to 
ask for a repeal of the law, or even for any modification 
of it.” 
If these were the words really uttered — and uttered, as it 
seems, without any qualification on the part of the speaker 
himself or of others — we scarcely see that the Association 
has any well-marked raison d'etre. This law which is to 
exist unattacked is the only tangible hindrance or danger 
against which physiologists require to be “ protedted.” Let 
us for a moment consider the meaning of Sir W. Jenner’s 
words. If the promoters of the Association do not 
desire a repeal, or even a modification, of the Vivisection 
Adt, they admit it substantially as justifiable and necessary ! 
By so doing, as seems to us, they condone the agitation 
which led to the passing of the Adt and all its consequences, 
even to the indignities which medical Science has suffered 
in the person of Prof. Ferrier. We can easily conceive the 
rejoicings with which this speech and these admissions will 
be received in anti-vivisedtionist circles. They will very 
naturally be accepted as evidence that the defenders of phy- 
siological experimentation either feel doubts as to the good- 
ness of their own cause, or lack the energy and the courage 
needed for its defence. And as a necessary result the enemy 
will take heart and redouble their exertions to deprive phy- 
siologists of the last fragments and shadows of liberty which 
they still possess. Anti-vivisedtionists have all along urged 
that the physiologists — unlike chemists, physicists, astrono- 
mers— “ need watching.” Now it will be said that they 
confess such necessity ! 
What is perhaps even more to be regretted, eminent men 
of Science and the leaders of the medical profession, if they 
accept the lines on which the Association is to be founded, 
accept at the same time all the illogicalities of which the 
Vivisedtion Adt is so conspicuous an embodiment. According 
to this Adt the higher and purer the motive the more culpable 
the deed. The man who skins a living frog and sprinkles it 
with salt for a wager escapes the censure of the law ; so 
does the angler who impales a frog upon a hook as a bait for 
jack, and leaves it to writhe for an entire night; so does the 
youth who drenches a newt with petroleum and sets it on 
