The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-22
Foreign items.

Few men among the great authorities in
the modern science OF medicine are looked mp
to with greater respect than Claude Bernard
(the President de PAcsdemie de Medeoins)
and it is with dismay that invaliis and mem-
bers OF the Society for ths Prevention of
Cluelty to Animals will read the remarks
with which he has this year prefaoed his
annual course OF lectures. Mr.. Buckle as
suTes us that with the exception OF mathe-
matics and astronomy every science Is still in
its infancy; and now Professor Claude Bsr-
nard brings the weight of his high authority
to support the same theory as regards med
cal science. In 1S47 he eald to the assembled
students:--"Genllemen, the science of med-
cine which sm commissioned to teach you
does not exist" This year ne repeats the
came assertion, qualifying 1t with the hope
that the data since obtained may serve as a
foundation Tor an experimental science. But
un ortunately vlvisection is the real basis
of experimental physiology. On this sub
ject Claude Bernard eXpstiates with a
complacepcy which reminds one of Peter the
Great, who, wishing while at Stockholm TO
see the wheel in action, quietly effered one or
his suite as the patient to be broken on it.
The sacrifice OF super fuous cats and dogs the
pro sor seems to consider a salutary and by
no means inhuman process; even in the case
OF suptraDnuated horses he doubts whether
they suffer more, and is certain that they
suffer shorter time, under the operators
knife than under the cabby's whip. Still this
ardent votary OF science is accessible to feel
iDgs OF humanity. The cutting up of live
monkey was too much for even his hardened
nerves. The poor brute acted so much like
human being, seizing his hands and uttering
piteous cries, that he never attempted to re-
peat the experiment. And he admits that
chlOroform may be employed to mitigate the
agony of the dumb martyrs to science. We
may hope, therefore, that the inhiction of
pain on the brute creation may be mitigated
at least. Perhaps the law will enforce the
means for SO doing which the great apostle
of vivisection himself admits to be available.
Although Scotland as every one has heard,
is more pious than any other portion of the
United Kingdom, there is one circumstance
constantly brought to light by the Registrar
Generals reports which is seldom commented
upon by Scotch divnes. These authorities
often boast of the superior intelligence of their
countrymen and women, but they never ex-
plain the cause of an awkward proportion be-
tween the number of legitimate and illegti.
mate births in their part of the country. Last
year, for instance, u.s. 673 children were born,
and OF these IL, 266 were illegitimate. In the
northeastern division the young women who
became mothers without being wives were in
the proportion of 1872 per cent. At Kirkcud-
bright it was l7'3 per cent. And yet at Kirk
oudbright all pious forms and ceremonies (save
marrisge) are rigidly observed, and man dare
not even brush his hat on Sundays. The i'm
| proving influence of the Scotch example of
| national chasacter is, unfortunately, dimin-
| ished by the irregular increase of their popu-
| lation. Have the writer's and divnes who re-.
prove immortality in the darker parts of these
islands nothing to say about the little failings
OF the "unco' gude?"