VIVISECTIONAL CRUELTIES. 
101 
repute had had, up to that date, the slightest suspicion. 
This was the discovery of arsenic in all the best and so- 
called purest varieties of copper, whether as foil, gauze, or 
wire, and in sufficient proportion to give rise, under certain 
conditions, to fallacious results. 
(To be continued .) 
VIVISECTIONAL CRUELTIES. 
To the Editor of the ( Lancet .’ 
Sir, —The inhuman practice of dissecting animals while 
still living has recently attracted a greater degree of public 
attention in France and England than at any former period, 
with a view to its abolition, or at all events the diminution 
of its abuses. From the inquiries made on the subject by 
the London and Paris Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals, it appears that the supposed advantages of this 
practice in a physiological point of view are not so great as 
members of your profession formerly imagined. Mr. Perry, 
for instance, in a letter which appeared in the Lancet of the 
24th November, states “ that he witnessed operations of this 
nature at the veterinary schools of Paris from 9 a.m. till 5 
p.m., for the instruction of pupils in practical surgery, not 
for the elucidation of physiological phenomena, but merely 
as an exercise or drill to render them expert in the use of 
operating instruments. That he remonstrated with the pro¬ 
fessors on the cruelty of such a practice, but in vain, al¬ 
though they admitted its inutility for any other purpose than 
that of accustoming pupils to scenes of blood and the shrink¬ 
ing of the flesh from the cruelties of the knife. 
If such cruelties are necessary for such purposes, one 
would imagine that the knowledge thus acquired would be 
as easily obtained at the slaughter-houses of butchers or 
knackers’ yards. These professors at Paris might as well 
have replied to the remonstrances of Mr. Perry in the same 
manner as the cook did when accused of unnecessary cruelty 
in frying eels while still alive—that he thought so himself 
when he first commenced, but that now they had become 
accustomed to it they did not appear to mind it. Against 
such logic the friends of humanity should enter their 
protest. 
T he Paris Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 
