The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-27 00:00:00

A Scientific Plea for Vivisection !

The most useful of all human actions are open to abuse,
and we do not deny that vivisection has been abused ; at
the same time we ignore altogether the statement that in
this country it is greatly abused. Discarding the butcheries
of the farriers of Alfort—discarding these in the name of
science, and protesting against them as warmly as any of
our humane countrymen, we would guard the public ear-
nestly from believing the insinuated, if not the outspoken,
falsehood, that in any English school, medical or veterinary,
any such barbarities are ever dreamed of, much less perpe-
trated. An intimate acquaintance with the schools in this
country enables us to speak positively on this point. We
can state that in an experience of 15 years we have never
seen a vivisection performed by a student, not fifty
performed before a class of students, and not fifteen in
which some method for producing antethesia was not
used. Moreover, in every experiment a professed teacher
of physiological science was the experimentalist, and the
experiment, when it was exhibited, was considered to
be essential as demonstrating certain facts which no were
theoretical or abstract teaching could make evident to the
mind of the learner. Apart from the lecture-theatre,
the practice of vivisection is very limited in this country.
The men who resort to it are few; they are men of the
highest integrity and humanity; they make no secret of
their labours, and they undertake no experimental research
without having in view some useful, and, in the end, bene-
ficent intention,—some object which, if achieved, shall
render good service, not to man alone, but to the inferior
animals themselves. If confirmation were required of the
zeal, the earnestness, of these men, we have it in the fact
that they do not hesitate to subject even themselves to risk,
if the object to be attained is worthy of the danger. When
chloroform was under experiment, after a few poor rabbits
had been put to sleep by it and had come again to life, who,
amongst the human race, first ventured on the same danger ?
A sick man, waiting for an operation ? No 1 Dr. Simpson,
the experimentalist, was the volunteer to taste the distilled
liquid, and, in calm doubt as to the result, to let his eyes'
windows fall, and to borrow the likeness of shrunk death.
Following Dr. Simpson, tho late Dr. Snow, in his search
for another substance that should supplant chloroform,sub-
jectel himself to at least 40 different gases and vapours ;
and if we were inclined, we could illustrate the same facts
over and over again from other physiologists ; but
our purpose is answered in showing that the scholars of
this country who perform experiments on animals are
anxious for the good of their race, and that they cannot be
men who would do either a wanton, a thoughtless, or a
cruel deed.

The attempts:at the present moment to bring to a final
close experiments on living animals, and with gross inhu-
manity to hoot down and punish to the quick those earnest
scholars who reluctantly resort to such inquiries, is the
shallowest and most contemptible of pretences. It is desti-
tute alike of heart and of sense. So long as there are terrible
maladies afflicting the human family which ordinary obser•
vation will not reach ; so long as there are profound secrets
to be discovered, leading to a perfect understanding of the
whole of the animal organisation, aye, and of life itself, we
may rest assured that such a positive field of research as is
opened by experiment, even at the sacrifice of animal life,
will never be left uncultivated until the truth lights up the
whole. When all is known, experiment will cease, and not
till then. The extreme man of so-called humanity, may, by
his jibes, his sneers, and his sharply cutting sophistries
suppress the external manifestation of an experimental pur-
suit, but he will not save thereby a single animal a year.
If he is serious he will take advice in time, and holding
himself ready to expose any such evidences of experimental
research as may be unmeaning and cruel, he will allow the
truly philosophic inquirer to go on his way, feeling that he
may ask nature any reasonable question, and publish the
answer he has received without offence and without fear,—
Social Science Review.

HOPS.—The first bale of Bavarian hops arrived
in our market to-day, and was sold by Messrs. R. and T.
Collis to Mr. Robert Walker, hop merchant, of Stratford-
on-Avon; quality very choice. The price, as in the case
of the first new English pockets, will of course form no
guide to the ultimate run of prices.
THE MURDER IN DERBYSHIRE.—A Manchester
correspondent says that young Townley, who is
charged with assassinating Miss Goodwin, of Wigwell-hall,
Derbyshire, is well known in that city. His father is a
shipping, or commission agent, a man of culture, who stands
high in all the relations of life, an accomplished musician,
and was for may years connected with the Liverpool Gentle-
men's Glee Club as hon. secretary. His maternal grand-
father is an eminent cotton-spinner at Manchester—a
spinner of cotton sewing-thread. It would give unneces-
sary pain to mention names, but this one will be familiar
enough to most ladies whose workboxes contain a choice
assortment of material for needlework. Whilst the young
lady's paternal grandfather is a captain in the army, the
young man's paternal grandfather was a post captain in
the naval service, and was many years connected with the
mail packet service between Liverpool and Dublin. Though
no longer living, the name of Capt. Townley will no doubt
be familiar to the memory of many persons who have been
accustomed to cross the Irish Channel. Young Townley
has been brought up in the mill of his maternal grand-
father as a cotton-spinner. Those acquainted with him say
there was nothing impulsive or passionate in his character,
but, on the contrary, he was of rather a calm and gentle
bearing. He is well educated. Ile had been kindly and
gently nurtured, and, with the other members of the family,
had always been encouraged by the father to an inter-
change of confidence in all matters of difficulty or trouble.
How it is that he has so strangely neglected such encou-
ragement in an affair• so deeply affecting his welfare as that
which has led to such sad results is a matter to be regretted
rather than accounted for. There is no pretence for ex-
cusing his conduct on the ground of any previous tendency
to insanity. There is no doubt that he was fondly attached
to the young lady whosa life he has so barbarously sacri-
ficed, and it is said that for a fortnight previously to their
fatal meeting he bad scarcely enjoyed a wink of sleep,
though the cause of his restlessaus was not made known to
his taraily.