The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-08-15
ADVANTAGES OF vIvIsEcTloN.
How Humanity Is Benefited by the Prae
tice That Seems Cruel.

HOvhN A6ES OF ViVioGC tIONs
How Humanity Is Benefited by the Prss
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 &C.
cuse those who so unfeelingly cause
them to suffer.
Reading these descriptions, which
undoubtedly are based upon facts, q
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
hbit 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
they not wish that such a man was
available? Would they not travel from
one end of the world to the other in or
der to find the person who, by biz
knowledge and skill, could prolone
their lives for couple of years? 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 nc
other specimens than the bodies of PEG
pie who died friendless in prisons o,
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 O,
the information is lacking in regard to
the progress of the sickness which
causes the death. Post-mOrtem exam
nations will have a much greater value
to science when people permit the body
of q friend to be dissected whenever
a 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 deviation of MILL
meter from the right line might cause
the death of 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 example2 The
study OF anatomy merely shows that Q
nerve runs in certain direction, but ii
does not show and cannot teach what the
functions of the nerve are and how il
will act when irritated. Are physi
clans to imagine all such things2 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 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 Oh
jectors would be right; but while Their
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 a warm heart TO,
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 az
closely as possible. The accusation and
proposition are both utterly false. The
result of a thousand experiments does
perhaps not bring about the cure OF
one disease, but these experiments lead
toward the discovery of the principles
which underlie a disease, and nobody
can tell whether the next experiment
will not be followed by 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 q
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 tho amount of experiments science
will come to q standstill.
The second point is: Why should
these poor animals be made to SUITE,
for the benefit of the human being9 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 it
will affect him. If we should ever 20
SO far as to give the same rights to all
creatures which we give to man we
would have to starve and 90 naked.