362 
ON THE DISSECTION OF 
to them, either for the purpose of determining a question of mere 
curiosity, or of light importance ; neither will he repeat them un¬ 
necessarily. But the practice, especially of the French physio¬ 
logists, is very different. They torture animals innumerable, 
almost without end or aim, farther than hoping to get at some¬ 
thing ; like a child who breaks a watch in pieces, thinking to 
obtain thereby a knowledge of the reason why it ticks. Many 
hundred dogs have been dissected alive, to prove whether the 
stomach is active or passive in vomiting ; but I would ask, when 
an animal is writhing in agony, struck with dismay and astonish¬ 
ment, with its belly opened and its bowels exposed to the atmo¬ 
sphere, are we to expect that, in all the horrors of this situation, 
the stomach will exhibit itself, or perform its functions just as if 
nothing had happened? I cannot believe it; and if ten thou¬ 
sand such experiments as this were made, there still will and 
must be a want of proof. The stomach may in such circum¬ 
stances be passive, though in the natural state of the animal it 
may be active in vomiting; and, in fact, after all the cruelties 
which have been practised by physiologists, we do not at this 
moment know whether, in the natural and unmutilated state of 
an animal, the stomach contracts in vomiting or not,—and, for¬ 
tunately, this is of not one straw’s consequence. 
I believe, also, that little or no confidence is to be placed in 
the accuracy of conclusions respecting the natural functions of 
viscera drawn from observation of what occurs in animals labour¬ 
ing under extreme suffering and terror. The pancreas, for ex¬ 
ample, has always been considered as a gland similar to those 
which produce the saliva ; but w'hether its secretion were exactly 
the same or different, its large size is a pretty good presumptive 
proof that the quantity of fluid it prepares is not very small. 
The duct or tube through which the pancreas empties its secreted 
fluid, opens into the first of the small intestines. Now, if a dog 
be tied down, and his abdomen be laid open, or, as I have already 
remarked, if, in vulgar phrase, his belly be ripped up, the hands 
introduced among his bowels, and the portion of intestine to 
which the pancreatic duct goes be slit open, can I, in fairness 
and truth, trust to any result in this case which may be obtained 
from observation of the quantity of fluid secreted by the gland 
during so horrible a process ? I say, it would be unphilosophical 
to have any such trust, and I would look on almost all opinions, 
formed on data so unnatural, as unsatisfactory and valueless. 
Magendie thus describes his mode of collecting this fluid: — 
‘ I lay bare the orifice of the canal in a dog, I wipe the surround¬ 
ing mucous membrane with a very fine cloth, and I wait until a 
drop of liquid passes out: as soon as it appears, I suck it up 
with a pipette, an instrument used in chemistry. In this manner 
