Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-08-15
ADVANTAGES OF vlvlsecTlos.
How Humanity Is Benefited by the rfAe
tice That seems Cruel.

/ "A mONellGIlt 10 SNN VI 49, -
well meaning humane, yet supersens'
tive persons to stir up public sentiment
AGAINST the practice of vivisection. Id
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, cannon
even give expression to their pain or ae
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 practice.
Yet the whole subject has another as
pect. If any of these humane and sen
sitive persons should be inflicted with
disease the cure of which would require
not alone a well learned physician, but
one who could perform an operation
with a skillful and steady hand, would
i they not wish that such man was
availablea 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 prolone
their lives for couple of years? But
whence shall that knowledge or prac
tice come to physician if he is not al
lowed to experiment.
1t shocks as yet the sentimentality OF
friends should be dissected, and the
students of medicine can obtain nc
other specimens than the bodies of PEG
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 tc
science, because they either do moi
show that special disease which the
professor is treating in his lectures OF
the information is lacking in regard to
? the progress of the sickness which
t causes the death. Post-mortem exam
to science when people permit the body
of a friend to be dissected whenever
I a physician who treated that person in
Y 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
9 ed in ordsr that it may remain steady
D at the time when a deviation of mill
meter from the right line might cause
Q the death of patient How, further
more, are the laws and principles to be-
9 established in which and by which
h nerves and muscles act, if they cannot
n be demonstrated by example2 The
e study Of anatomy merely shows that q
4 nerve runs in a certain direction, but il
g does not show and cannot teach what the
n functions of the nerve are and how il
will act when irritated. Are physi
t clans to imagine all such things2 Il
: they are to be deprived of the means
81 with which to experiment and from
t which to learn, we may as well close
d 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
3 men who took vulgar delight in the ag
1 onies of dying animals, or if the student,
8 were men who for the sake of pleasur,
y crowded around the dissecting table, O.
y If, finally, vast classes of people would
p become infected with the spirit of cruel
: ty by the practice of vivisection, the oh
3 jectors would be right; but while thei
4 objection shows laudable tenderness
4 of heart, they go too far and forge
5 that those who practice vivisection ar,
! very few in numbers that they are ear
t nest men who have q warm heart fo
their fellow creatures, and whose desir,
/ to relieve suffering is the motive O
3 their apparent disregard of pity.
4 There are two more points which
3 need to be answered. 1t is claimed tina;
without any use to science animals ar,
, maltreated, and that if vivisection is tt
be permitted, it should be restricted a.
, closely as possible. The accusation anc
proposition are both utterly false. TIL,
: result of thousand experiments doe.
perhaps not bring about the cure o.
/ one disease, but these experiments leaG
toward the discovery of the principle.
3 which underlie a disease and nobody
3 can tell whether the next experiment
will not be followed by a more brilliant
success. AS every year new scholars
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 a living being. From
the moment that we shall endeavor to
limit tho amount of experiments science
will come to q standstill.
The second point is: Why should
these poor animals be made to suffer
for the benefit of the human being2 To
this l answer; Why are they killed to
be eaten by the human being2 In this
world of ours man takes his first cogni
zance of himself and measures all that
Is right and wrong by Judging how il
VIII affect him. If we should ever 90
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