561 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals, 
BRUTALITY OF THE FRENCH VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 
We extract the following statement, with the heading as 
given above on the cover of the journal, from the Medical 
Times arid Gazette , of September 4th, 1858. We place it first 
among our extracted articles, because we most cordially 
join in the condemnation, by the editor, of such uncalled-for 
cruelty. We do so the more gladly because such is never 
practised in our school, nor indeed is the act of vivisection ever 
mentioned or thought of, but to be severely censured and 
denounced as unnecessary and brutal. 
“ In this country we are glad to think that experiments on 
animals are never performed now-a-days except upon some 
reasonable excuse for the pain thus wilfully committed. We 
are inclined to believe that the question will some day be 
asked, — Whether any excuse can render them justifiable? 
But one cannot read without shuddering details like the fol- 
lowing. It would appear from these, that the practice of such 
brutality is the every-day lesson taught in the veterinary 
schools of France. 4 A small cow, very thin, and w hich had 
undergone numerous operations, that is to say, which had 
suffered during the whole of the day the most extreme torture 
(ayant eprouvee durant une journee entiere des souffrances 
les plus vives), was placed upon a table and killed by the in^» 
sufflation of air into the jugular vein, 5 &c., &c. This fact is 
related by M. Sanson, of the Veterinary School of Toulouse, 
merely incidentally, when describing an experiment of his 
own upon the blood. The wretched animal was actually cut 
to pieces by the students, who w T ere learning the art of veteri- 
nary surgery. We are reminded of the Abyssinian feast 
described by Bruce, at which the animal w r as sliced up alive 
in the salle a manger , and so served up quivering to the de- 
lighted savages ! M. Sanson adds (merely wanting to prove 
that the nervous system of the animals upon which he 
operated was properly stirred up) : f Those who have seen 
these wretched animals on their bed of suffering (lit de 
douleur), know the degree of torture to which they are sub- 
jected, — torture, in fact, under which they, for the most part, 
succumb ! 5 55 
