EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS. 
99 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
SHOULD EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS BE RESTRICTED 
OR ABOLISHED?* 
By Robt. Meade Smith, M.D., Professor of Comparative Physiology, University 
of Pennsylvania. 
Continued from 'page 64. 
Thus a French commission kept thirty-four vaccinated, and 
twenty-four non-vaccinated cattle in close contact with other ani¬ 
mals which were infected with this disease. Of the vaccinated 
animals only one, i. e. three per cent., contracted the disease, 
while of the non-protected fourteen were affected, i. e. 57 per 
cent. So also in the Veterinary School in Utrecht, twenty-one 
vaccinated and five unvaccinated cattle were placed in a stable 
with six animals suffering from contagious pleuro-pneumonia. 
During thirteen weeks not one of the protected animals was in¬ 
fected, while four of the five non-vaccinated died. 
Bnt although these experiments were commenced more than 
thirty years ago, it is only comparatively recently that their true 
value has been recognized. Up to 1878 contagious pleuro-pneu¬ 
monia was so prevalent in Holland that the importation of cattle 
from that country was strictly prohibited by all its neighboring 
states. A law was then passed in Holland which made compul¬ 
sory the vaccination of all cattle in infected districts, and the 
effect has been that the disease has been there nearly entirely 
eradicated; in fact this success has been so complete that it was 
at one time almost impossible to procure fresh lymph for vaccina¬ 
tion purposes. 
All that could be urged against vaccination as a preventive of 
this disease was the occurrence of marked inflammatory reaction 
at the point of inoculation, which is usually in the tail; but the 
value of the method is now so clearly recognized that tailless cat¬ 
tle are especially valuable. The mortality from the operation, 
* An introductory address to the course of lectures on Comparative Physiology. 
Reprint from the Therapeutic Gazette. 
