Am' Sept.' F9lla9Tm'  )  Standardisation  of  Medicinal  Products.  585 
velopment  of  certain  products,  and  the  methods  of  testing,  together 
with  an  emphasis  on  the  value  to  the  world,  on  the  one  hand,  of  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  medicinal  substances,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  the  benefit  resulting  from  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  life  processes  in  health  and  in  disease.  One  must  start  with  cer- 
tain premises  such,  for  example,  as  these : 
That  some  medicinal  substances  are  valuable  for  relieving  pain 
or  prolonging  life ;  that  other  valuable  agents  may  be  discovered  or 
developed,  substances  possibly  more  valuable  than  those  with  which 
we  are  familiar;  that  most  human  lives  are  more  valuable  than  the 
average  animal's  life.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  almost  any  number 
of  animals  might  be  used  in  developing  a  remedy  for  tuberculosis,. 
iox  example,  which,  in  the  U.  S.  alone,  has  a  toll  of  150,000  lives 
yearly. 
There  is  still  another  side  to  the  picture — the  saving  of  animal 
life.  Hog  cholera  in  one  year,  in  one  state  of  the  Union,  caused  a 
loss  of  nearly  3,000,000  hogs,  while  one  hog,  when  hyperimmunized 
with  the  virus,  will  supply  serum  sufficient  to  immunize  100  hogs. 
The  disease  of  rinderpest  in  South  Africa  has  been  practically 
exterminated  by  following  the  information  gained  from  animal  ex- 
perimentation. It  is  a  disease  from  which  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  cattle  died  annually,  but  the  antivivisectionist  sees  only  the  rab- 
bits that  were  inoculated  to  study  the  disease  and  the  remedial  meas- 
ures, while  the  suffering  and  death  among  millions  of  infected  cattle 
is  overlooked. 
What  is  the  answer  ?  What  of  experiments  to  eliminate  Texas- 
fever  in  cattle,  white  scours  in  calves,  chicken  cholera,  dog  distem- 
per? When  a  disease  causes  an  economic  loss  and  waste  of  val- 
uable life,  experiments  are  undertaken  to  eliminate  or  control  the 
disease,  whether  it  is  human  or  animal  life.  Vivisection  in  its 
broader  application  therefore  saves  the  lives  of  thousands  of  ani- 
mals to  one  that  it  takes. 
Antitoxin  for  diphtheria  required  the  use  of  a  large  number  of 
animals  before  it  was  perfected  but  its  use  has  reduced  the  mortality 
from  over  80  per  cent,  to  under  20  per  cent,  of  those  attacked. 
While  in  some  cases  improved  hygienic  measures  may  be  equally 
responsible  with  the  remedial  agent  for  a  lowered  death  rate,  there 
is,  practically,  no  other  treatment  for  diphtheria  than  the  adminis- 
tration of  antitoxin. 
