584  Standardisation  of  Medicinal  Products.  {  Am- ^  * 
Regarding  the  first  of  these  it  should  be  sufficient  to  point  out 
that  while  many  of  the  valuable  medicaments  were  undoubtedly  dis- 
covered and  their  values  determined  by  observation  of  their  effects 
on  humans,  research  men  are  not  now  so  favorably  placed ;  it  is  rare 
indeed  when  one  can  find  a  person  willing  to  be  the  first  on  whom  a 
substance  which  may  or  may  not  be  a  therapeutic  agent,  shall  be 
tried.  The  risk  is  too  great,  for  the  toxicity  may  be  greater  than  its 
medicinal  value. 
Regarding  the  second  of  these,  while  in  some  cases  a  preliminary 
anesthesia  is  not  possible,  in  a  large  percentage  of  the  cases  where 
animals  are  employed  for  ascertaining  the  effect  of  a  drug,  the  ob- 
servation can  be  made  much  more  carefully,  and  more  accurate 
deductions  drawn  if  the  factor  of -pain  be  excluded  entirely. 
It  should  be  noted  further  that  the  use  of  animals  in  research  is 
always  with  the  hope  of  learning  facts  which  will  be  helpful  in 
relieving  pain  or  saving  lives,  either  human  or  animal. 
This  cannot  be  said  of  the  great  destruction  of  animal  life  by 
hunters  and  trappers  who  wound  or  kill  for  pleasure  and  only  inci- 
dentally for  profit ;  a  profit  which  is  almost  always  personal. 
It  cannot  be  said  of  the  slaughter  of  animals  for  food,  since 
animal  food  is  not  essential  to  life. 
It  cannot  be  said  of  the  slaughter  of  animals  for  bounty,  since  in 
many  cases  the  losses  caused  by  certain  animals  on  whose  head  a 
price  is  set  is  less  than  those  losses  due  to  an  abnormal  increase  in 
the  numbers  of  other  predatory  animals  which  had  formerly  been 
their  prey. 
Another  point  not  to  be  overlooked  is  that  in  some  cases,  notably 
that  of  using  dogs,  the  demand  for  research  uses  rarely  equals  the 
supply  of  undesirables  which  would  have  been  killed  with  no  useful 
return,  while  in  other  cases,  such  as  guinea  pigs,  rats  and  mice  the 
normal  supply  must  be  constantly  augmented  by  intensive  breeding, 
in  order  to  meet  the  demand  for  research  and  testing  purposes.  The 
use  of  dogs  is  therefore  no  economic  loss,  and  the  death  no  more 
painful  in  general  than  the  form  of  death  decreed  by  the  municipality. 
General  statements,  such  as  those  made  above,  are  of  little  value 
in  combating  the  untruths  and  half  truths  of  the  anti-vivisectionist. 
In  no  other  way  than  by  a  general  investigation  can  the  falsity  and 
absurdity  of  many  of  their  statements  be  established. 
It  has  seemed  best  to  meet  the  situation  by  a  history  of  the  de- 
