News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-06-12
ADVANTAGES OF NVlsEcTIoN.
How Humanity Is Benefited by the Prac.
tice That Seems Cruel.

How Humanity Is Benefited by the Prac-
tice That Seems Cruel.
A movement is set on foot by some
well meaning humane, yet supersensi-
tive persons to stir up public sentiment
against the practice of vivisection. In
the pamphlets which they scatter broad
cast over the land they describe how
the professors of physiology are treating
the poor dumb creatures, who, being
deprived by nature of language, cannot
even give expression to their pain or ac-
cuse those who so unfeelingly cause
them to suffer.
Reading these descriptions, which
undoubtedly are based upon facts, a
heart of stone must melt in pity, and
people whose imagination permits them
to put themselves in the place of the
dogs, cats, rabbits and frogs are easily
induced to petition legislation to pro-
hibit such a practice.
Yet the whole subject has another as
pcct. If any of these humane and SEN
sitive persons should be inflicted with a
disease the cure of which would require
not alone well learned physician, but
one who could perform an operation
with skillful and steady hand, would
they not wish that such a man was
available2 Would they not travel from
one end of the world to the other in or
der to find the person who, by his
knowledge and skill, could prolong
their lives for couple of years2 But
whence shall that knowledge or prac-
tice come to a physician if he is not al
lowed to experiment?
1t shocks as yet the sentimentality OF
people that the bodies of deceased
friends should be dissected, and the
Students of medicine can obtain no
other specimens than the bodies of peo-
pie who died friendless in prisons OF
poorhouses, or such as grave robbers
would offer them for sale Yet such
corpses are without great value to
science, because they either do not
show that special disease which the
professor is treating in his lectures or
the information is lacking In regard to
the progress of the sickness which
causes the death Post-mortem exam
nations will have much greater value
to science when people permit the body
of a friend to be dissected whenever
physician who treated that person in
life desires it.
Even then, however, the study OF
medicine cannot reap the full benefit
The hand of the physician who is to
perform the operation must be train
ed in order that it may remain steady
at the time when a deviation of milli-
meter from the right line might cause
the death of a patient. How, further
more, are the laws and principles to be
established in which and by which
nerves and muscles act, if they cannot
be demonstrated by example? The
study of anatomy merely shows that a
nerve runs in a certain direction, but it
does not show and cannot teach what the
functions of the nerve are and how ii
will act when irritated. Are physi.
clans to imagine all such things? Ii
they are to be deprived of the means
with which to experiment and from
which to learn, we may as well close
our schools of medicine and rely in sick
ness upon the miraculous intervention
of saints as people used to rely upon il
in ancient times.
If the professors of physiology were
men who took a vulgar delight in the ag
onies of dying animals, or if the students
were men who for the sake of pleasure
crowded around the dissecting table, OF
if, finally, vast classes of people would
become infected with the spirit of cruel
ty by the practice of vivisection, the OBJ
jectors would be right; but while thei1
objection shows laudable tenderness
of heart, they go too far, and forget
that those who practice vivisection are
very few in numbers, that they are ear
nest men who have warm heart fol
their fellow creatures, and whose desire
to relieve suffering is the motive OF
their apparent disregard of pity.
There are two more points which
need to be answered. 1t is claimed that
without any use to science animals are
maltreated, and that if vivisection is to
be permitted, it should be restricted as
closely as possible. The accusation and
proposition are both utterly false. The
result of thousand experiments does
perhaps not bring about the cure OF
one disease, but these experiments lead
toward the discovery of the principles
which underlie disease, and nobody
can tell whether the next experiment
will not be followed by a more brilliant
AS
enter the various schools of medicine
the same field must be gone over by the
professor again and again. The student
must be shown by illustration how a
muscle or nerve in life will act when ir
ritated, and his hand must be trained
to operate upon living being. From
the moment that we shall endeavor to
limit the amount of experiments science
will come to a standstill.
The second point is: Why should
these poor animals be made to suffer
for the benefit of the human being9 To
this l answer: Why are they killed to
be eaten by the human being? In this
world of ours man takes his first cogni-
zance of himself and measures all that
is right and wrong by judging how-it
will affect him. If we should ever go
so far as to give the same rights to all
creatures which we give to man we
would have to starve and go naked,
because even vegetarianism would be
cruelty. For all we know even the
plant may suffer pain while we are de-
stroying it.-Boston Globe.
Cause and Effect.
Il don't understand why I'm less
clever than Charlie"
"Of course not. If you weren't less
clever you would understand. "-Phila-
Ill. l.;