The morning call., 1892-08-28
ON LIVING ANIMALS.
The Benefits That Have Resulted From
ViViSGCti0n.
How Surgical Operations Were Conducted
Before the Days of Anesthetics and
Antiseptics.
Written for The MORNING GAIL.

'1t is somewhat curious" said ply
sician to me the other day, that San Fran
cisco with all the enterprise and ambition
that Is within her borders yet lags behind
many other cities where institutions of
medical learning flourish, in advocating the
modern scientific methods of teaching physi-
ology. studied nay profession here, but
have never seen physiology taught by DEM
onstrati0n on the living animal"
repeated the remark to a student in one
of our medical colleges, who explained to
me that such demonstrations have been
made here. but were chiefly conspicuous
for the magnitude Of the failures that at
tended upon them.
"'Iis just as we'll that they failed" was
the comment Of a tender hearted listener
"San Francisco is too far advanced to per-
nit such needless cruelties even In the
name of science
That opened the way for argument, which
waxed warm and earnest, as to whether ex-
periments on the living animal are iustifi-
able or necessary. If they are every stu.
dent of medicine should have all the
advantages that are to be obtained from
them before he starts out to practice, pos
slbly to experiment, upon the nerves, bodies
and brains of his feliOW-creatures. Facts
all other lore, and it is only by actual ex-
pertinent that the seeker after truth is able
TO distinguish them from each other-to
discriminate between scientific truths and
the theories aud ideas that arise from time
10 time In mems minds. Even opponents
OF experimental teaching in our medical
colleges admit that the greater part of our
knowledge of physiology, surgery and thera-
peutics is derived from experiments of
some sort. For it must be remem-
bered that there are various sorts
of experiments. There are, for instance,
the experiments that nature performs upon
individual members of society, giving us.the
opportunity to study pathological cOndi-
tons upon human beings there are the scien-
tlfic investigations OF men Of learning, fitted
to draw Just conclusions from what they OBJ
serve, and there are those wholesale expert
ments upon priceless human life that stand
out in the annals of the worlds. history
and mark the march Of ignorance and senti-
mentality. OF the scientific class may be
cited the experiments of Professor Thiersch
in Germany, who In 1853 conducted a series
OF Investigations into the cause and treat
ment Of cholera by inoeulatng 56 mice with
cholera discharges. OF The SO there were a.
sickened and IA died with choleraic diseases.
OF the last class named were the
experiments tried. with similar results,
in the same year, in London, by a
certain commercial company upon SOC, 900
human beings whom it inOculated with
cholera discharges by means of its impure
water supply. Both these experiments
proved what had been suspected before,
namely, that the cholera germ may thus be
transmitted from one individual to an in
definite number. 1t is not hard to say
which experiment was the cOstlier, yet so
great has been the indignation of humane
people over such experiments as Thiersch