Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-26
Monday herning, Jan. 26. 1880.
BERGH VERSUS VIvIsECTION.

Monday horning, Jan. 26. 1880. BERGH VERSUS VIVISECTION. MT. Henry Bergh has made good fight for the animals of New York. and has succeeded in ameliorating the condition of many of those which work for man and insuring an easy death to those which man eats. In the course ofhis earnest.s and humane labors he has made some mistakes, but nobody questions his good intent For some timeh he has been con- vinced that the practice of vivisection has DO adequate excuse for it's continuance, and he is now on the warpath to stop it so, far as New York is concerned In his memorial in sup port of the bill which he has prepared and caused to be placed before the Legislature he declares 'fthat divers learned and scientific (but misguided) medical men, under the pre- tence of demonstrating to certain medical students certain physical phenomena connect ed with the functions of life, are constantly and habitually in the practice of cutting up alive, torturing and tormenting divers of the unoffending brute creation to illustrate their theories and lectures, but without any practi- cal or beneficial result either to themselves or to the students" The law of 1867 in regard to the prevention of unnecessary pain upon the brute creation" provided that the statutes of New York s'should not be construed to prohibit or interfere with any properly con- ducted scientific experiments or investiga- tions, which experiments shall be performed only under authority of the faculty of some regularly incorporated medical college or uni versity of the State of New York" He says this law has been perverted, and that the 'tscientifc and misguided" persons aforesaid continue these practices without any benef- cal result'' to themselves or to their students.
 or course the whole question of vivisection hinges upon whether there is beneficial re- suit from it or not If there is the sutferipgs of the animals which undergo it are necessary and justi6able. MT. Bergh declares that no good comes from it, and backs up his asser- tion by testimony, all of which does not strengthen his case. Thus, not long ago he called Magendie, the first of vivisectors, a ''wretch' and Ian abandoned criminal" and cited ''FIeming's Prize Essay" in proof that shortly before his death Magendie said that vivisection was failure. Among the numer- ous defenders of the practice whom MT. Berghs action has called forth is Dr. John c. Dalton, of New York, a physician and surgeon of the highest prominence. Dr. Dalton warmly defends Magendie and gives reasons for thinking it unlikely that he ever gave any such opinion concerning vivisection as was ascribed to him by Fleming, whose "Prize Essay" it is said, was written at the instance of the London So- ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ami mals. Magendie, says his defender, turned the tide of physiological study iron, what he believed to be futile speculations to the rigid examination of experimental actualities. It was his religion, so to speak, that the safety of science depended Ion it's complete reliance upon demonstrable facts, and that in the study of the functions of life it was the living body alone that could tell us the truth" Ma8endie was greatly honored by his contemporaries, and it is pointed out that even if he was asswretch'' and ''criminap' he was man enough in the cholera season of 1882 to voluntarily go to the centre of contagion to study the maIady, and to afterwards serve in the Hospital of Hotel Dieu throughout the epidemic in Paris For this he received the cross of the Legion of Honor.
 Dr. Dalton's defense of Magendie is inter esting, but his defense of vivisection Is still more So. In his opinion the passage of law like that proposed by MT. Bergh would be most harmful thing, arresting as it would in the New York medical schools the progress of a very important branch of investigation. What vivisection may do for medical science is of course unknown. The discoveries all ready made by it are thus summed up by Dr. Dalton
 circulation of the blood, the absorption and movement of the lymph and chyle, the trans fusionsof blood means of preserving life, the mechanism of reparation, the interchange of oxygen and carbonic acid between the blood and the atmosphere, the respiration of the tis- sues, the endowments of the muscular and nervous clements, the digestive action of the intestinal fluids, the growth and generation of bone, the distinction of motor and sensitive nerves, the direct and reflex functions of the spinal cord the Hunterian operation for the cure of aneurism, the origin and prevention of many parasitic diseases, the nature and opera tion of venomous poisons, the movements of the glottis in respiration, the influence of the Iarypgeal nerves in the formation of the voice, the local action ofthe nervous system in regu- lating the circulation. the physiological chem istry of the liver and other abdominal organs, the centres of motion in the hemisphere of the brain, the influence of the pneumo- gastric nerve on the hearts movement, the production of epilepsy, the action of the semi circular canals the communicability of certain contagious and infectious diseases.
 Mir. Bergh's proposed law will provoke q very general discussion, and the subject of vivisection will be thoroughly argued. It is, however, hardly probable that, on fair show ing of the case, his bill will pass.