. 162 
VIVISECTIONAL CRUELTIES. 
To the Editor of c The Lancet / 
Sir, —Apropos to the discussion on vivisectional cruelties, 
which has recently occupied a place in your columns, will you 
allow me to suggest the adoption of a method of procedure 
which I have long thought would be a great improvement upon 
the present mode of practising operations upon the dead 
subject in our dissecting-rooms, and which, if adopted at the 
veterinary schools at Alfort, and elsewhere in France, would 
effectually substitute the horrible cruelties which are there 
practised upon living animals. The only excuse which the 
advocates of the present system—justifiable, in my opinion, 
on no ground whatever—can have is, that operations upon 
the living differ from those performed on the dead subject, 
by the fact that the flow of blood following the first incision 
in the former, somewhat obscures the remaining steps of the 
operation, necessitates the frequent use of sponge, forceps, 
and ligature, and is apt, at first, to embarrass a novice, 
whose only experience has been gained in the anatomical 
theatre. 
To render, therefore, operations upon the latter on a par 
with the former, I would propose that elastic bags containing 
fluid, coloured so as to resemble respectively arterial and 
venous blood, be connected with the principal vessels of the 
limb or part to be operated on in the dead subject, so that, 
by the compression of the hand of an assistant, or a super¬ 
posed weight, the fluid would be forced along the main trunks, 
and would issue in jets at any small branches that may be 
incised during the operation, so necessitating the use of 
sponge, ligature, and forceps, and rendering it as nearly 
similar as possible to a like procedure in the living. 
Anxious as I am, in common I am sure with the majority 
of your readers, to see the horrors of vivisection terminated, 
permit me to suggest to your correspondent, Sir J. Scott 
Lillie, that the better plan would be to memorialise the 
Emperor of the French, calling attention to this subject. 
There would be no difficulty in obtaining the signatures of 
the most eminent surgeons, veterinary surgeons, and physio¬ 
logists, and I do not doubt that his Majesty, who is well 
known as one of the first horsemen in France, would be 
readily induced to abolish, by Imperial edict, the cruelties 
which every right-thinking mind must deplore. 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
Chales Taylor, M.D. 
Nottingham; January , 1861. 
