324 Vivisection . [July, 
yet raise an outcry against vivisection, must be the very 
focus of hypocrisy. 
We now come to the last case. A small amount of life is 
sacrificed and a small amount of pain is inflicted in the 
pursuit of knowledge. Singularly enough this occasions a 
greater outcry than any of the former cases. We come, 
then, to the singular conclusion that it is permissible to kill 
animals, and to inflict pain upon them, for our safety, for 
emolument, convenience, luxury, ostentation, or amusement, 
hut not for the acquisition of knowledge ! Surely such a 
proposition, if once fairly stated, cairies with it its own 
refutation. But the knowledge sought for and acquired by 
means of vivisection is not for the mere gratification of our 
curiosity : it has already thrown most valuable light on the 
preservation of health, the prevention of disease, and the 
consequent prolongation of life. Hence it maybe said that 
the animals submitted to vivisection are indirectly, indeed, 
hut not the less decidedly, sacrificed to our safety. If we 
may not destroy life for our safety, what right have we to 
take it for any purpose less urgent ? Therefore we maintain 
that no person who kills animals, or causes them to he 
killed or subjected to pain for any purpose whatever, or de- 
rives any benefit from such death or infliction of pain, is 
logically justified in denouncing biological experiments. 
But some opponents may urge that what they object to is 
not the mere death of a few animals, but the excessive and 
prolonged torture to which they are previously exposed. 
We reply that if it is once conceded that we may under 
certain circumstances inflict pain upon animals, provided 
that we have a worthy and important end in view, the 
precise amount of pain is no longer a question of principle. 
Surely for an end so important we may take means which 
would he unjustifiable if our purpose were merely to compel 
a refractory beast to obey our will or to minister to a frivo- 
lous passion for ostentation and display. The pain inflicted 
in vivisection is much smaller in the number of cases, and 
certainly not more intense or prolonged in any one case, than 
that to which animals are subjected for other and less im- 
portant ends. We may be told that one wrong does not 
justify another ; but may we not bid the agitators take the 
beam out of their own eye before they seek to remove the 
mote from ours. When anglers and coursers, ^^-sports- 
men, Hurlingham-heroes, and wearers of seal-skin jackets 
presume to denounce vivisection, their only right is that of 
impudence. 
It must be remembered that biologists, far from inflicting 
