456 Bestiarianism v. Common Sense. [August, 
true sense of the word, “ men of Science,” this cannot be 
predicated of all. There are some who are indifferent to 
the acquisition of further knowledge concerning the pheno- 
mena of life, health, and disease. They do not seek to dis- 
cover anything. We could name a very able practitioner, a 
teacher of physiology at one of the most eminent provincial 
medical schools, who quite ignored and sneered at the mi- 
croscope. Such men are quite content to go on prescribing 
or operating as they did on first obtaining their diplomas ; 
and by means of a mysterious, incommunicable taCt they 
may be very successful. But they do not advance medical 
science by a single hair’s breadth. Their style is clever 
rule-of-thumb. 
There is a much lower grade of practitioners who enlist 
in the Bestiarian ranks. The medical profession is over- 
crowded. Can we therefore wonder if some, who have little 
prospeCt of rising by more legitimate means, seek to avail 
themselves of the popular mania ? To be proclaimed at the 
tea-tables a “dear nice man,” who does not meditate any 
treason against the alter ego of any gossip present ; to-wit, 
her spiteful pampered lap-dog may, in commercial phrase, 
be “ made to pay.” 
Lower still : there are, we understand, “ Doctors ” whose 
names are not to be found in the “ Medical Directory,” who 
are brought forward as representatives of enlightened and 
advanced medical opinion. Whether these worthies possess 
any registerable qualification, or are merely the holders of 
bogus diplomas,* and whether they are paid for their appear- 
ance on the platform, we can only surmise. 
We do not for a moment insinuate that Mr. Lawson Tait 
belongs to any of these classes. On the contrary, we know 
him as an investigator whose researches we have had the 
pleasure of noticing in the “Journal of Science,” and of 
whom we had hoped much better things. 
Before entering upon an examination of Mr. Tait’s me- 
moir, which is a reprint from the “ Transactions of the 
Birmingham Philosophical Society,” we must bring forward 
two considerations which to us seem to involve the Bestiarian 
party in an absolutely fatal dilemma. We ask, in the first 
place, Why should it be less defensible to inflict suffering 
upon animals, in pursuit of knowledge, than from any other 
motive or with any other purpose ? This question, though it 
* Within half a mile of the place where we sit writing resides, or lately 
resided, a worthy who for a consideration in money will procure for any appli- 
cant degrees in any faculty, or, for the matter of that, an order of knighthood 
or a title of nobility. 
