332 
Vivisection . 
-July, 
Indeed it would be far less irksome for biological writers to 
submit their works to the preliminary judgment of a censor 
than to live in fear of being dragged up to prove their inno- 
cence of cruelty before an over-worked and not over-culti- 
vated police-magistrate, a bench of Shallows — ignorant and 
careless of Science, or, in the worst case, before a jury of 
adulterating tradesmen. We are neither politicians nor 
lawyers, and the “ Quarterly Journal of Science ” is no 
political organ ; still we feel free to point out that this pro- 
posed interference with the medical press, in throwing the 
burden of proof upon the accused, involves a departure 
from the ancient spirit of English law and an attack upon 
one of the safeguards of our personal freedom. 
Another proposal, aiming at limitation rather than 
destruction, is, that only qualified medical men should be 
allowed to experiment upon animals. Now that biology is 
one of the sciences upon which the art of medicine reposes 
is quite true, just as astronomy is one of the bases of the 
art of navigation ; but to restrict biological research to 
medical practitioners would be as absurd as to confine 
astronomical investigations to officers of the navy. Biology 
will be more and more cultivated by students not direCtly 
connected with the medical profession, and certainly not 
practising as physicians or surgeons. 
Let us now examine what ground is taken by the Royal 
Commissioners who occupy an impartial position between 
Science and her enemies. Their concessions here will seem 
to the agitators too little, whilst to us they appear too great. 
As regards experiments for mere demonstration performed in 
medical schools* they consider such both necessary and 
permissible under the regulation which already exists, — that 
they be performed under the influence of some anaesthetic. 
It may be assumed that the good sense and feeling alike of 
professors and students will prevent such experiments from 
being needlessly multiplied. No one, for instance, in our 
day, would think it necessary to drop a mouse into a receiver 
of carbonic acid, or to exhaust it under the air-pump. 
Phenomena so superabundantly demonstrated may now, 
surely, be received on authority, without experimental 
evidence. 
As regards research — by far the more important branch of 
the question — they accept the principles laid down by the 
Physiological Section of the British Association in 1871, to 
which they propose that legislative sanction should be given, 
In no others ? 
