VIVISECTION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
fication of the provisions existing in the original bill. Both have evidently been drawn by 
persons hostile to scientific investigations which must be made through experimentation 
upon animals. The sentiment of the society which procured the drafting of these bills is 
well summarized in the report of its president for the year 1894. He said : 
“ 1 he subject of vivisection [experiments upon animals] has been frequently before your 
executive committee during the past year, and but one sentiment has been expressed, viz., 
that of utter abhorrence and condemnation of the inhuman practice which, according to 
the oft-expressed opinion of the best physicians and surgeons, is of no practical value to 
science or medicine.” (P. 18.) 
It is not surprising that people holding such views should endeavor to graft them upon 
the legislation of the country, and we must bear in mind the fact that those who 
drafted these bills are hostile to experimentation and desire to abolish rather than to regu¬ 
late it. 
1 he investigations which the Bureau of Animal Industry has made have been so suc¬ 
cessful as to attract the attention of the scientific world, and they have required constant 
experimentation upon animals. Some of these experiments have been painful to the ani¬ 
mals operated upon, but they have been in charge of scientific and humane persons who 
have exerted themselves to prevent any unnecessary suffering. Such experiments which 
are intended to supply the knowledge required for protecting our domestic animals from 
disease and for securing a food supply from them uncontaminated by disease, and which 
also contribute to the prevention and cure of human maladies, are less subject to the charge 
of cruelty, even though they cause pain, than are the ordinary practices of dishorning, 
emasculation, branding and slaughtering, all of which are countenanced for economic rea¬ 
sons and cause more pain than do scientific experiments. So long as we admit that an 
animal may be caused to suffer the intense pain of castration in order that it may be more 
economically raised and better suited for the service of manor for the production of edible 
meat, so long as we permit millions of delicate calves to be burned with a red hot iron upon 
their sensitive skins in order that they may be identified, and so long as we admit that animals 
may be killed by painful processes to supply us with food, it is inconsistent to say that 
they can not be used in experiments necessary for the advancement of knowledge, the re¬ 
lief of suffering, and the saving of property and life, 
The first investigations of this kind which this Department was directed by Congress to 
make related to the diseases of swine, and these investigations have been continued until 
those diseases which caused the principal losses are well understood and can be con¬ 
trolled by the application of proper measures. 
The Bureau of Animal Industry was established principally to avert the great dan¬ 
ger which threatened our cattle industry from the existence on our territory of that cattle 
plague known as the contagious pleuro-pneumonia of bovine animals. Other countries 
had struggled with it in vain, but it had never up to that time been eradicated from any 
country in which it had gained a considerable distribution. The nature of the disease and 
the best methods of controlling it were imperfectly understood. The experiments made 
here upon animals gave sufficient information, however, to enable those charged with the 
work to mark out a systematic and scientific plan of operations, which led to the complete 
eradication of the disease in less than five years. Although four years have passed since 
this work was completed, the predictions of the scientists have been fulfilled to the letter, 
and no cases of the disease have been found during that time. Previous to this work 
being undertaken the disease had existed constantly and extensively for more than forty 
years, and many persons had become so accustomed to it that they freely predicted its 
immediate reappearance even if it was stamped out. 
An illustration of the absolute necessity of experiments upon animals to settle contested 
questions relating to disease may be draw T n from the existing restrictions of the British 
Government on the American cattle trade. Although there has been no pleuro-pneu¬ 
monia in this country for over four years, the British inspectors frequently condemn our 
cattle as being affected with that disease. The American inspectors and many European 
veterinarians hold that the disease actually discovered is ordinary pneumonia arising from 
exposure during the ocean voyage. Plow then can this difference of opinion between the 
British and American officers be settled? Not by clinical observation, not by discussion, 
not by diplomacy, for all of these have been tried. A scientific and incontestable demon¬ 
stration could be made by exposing healthy cattle to those said to be affected with con- 
