Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-01-06
Important knowledge They
Yield in Physiology and the
Use OF Drugs.
The Functions Of Organs in the
Human or Animal Body
Thus Ascertained.

correspondence which has followed it
have naturally led to some renewal of
interest in the whole of the questions
involved and especially in one of them,
| on which, in the opinion of most people,
| the decision concerning others should
depend. We refer, says the London
Times, to the question of the actual
benefit to the human race, or even to
| the lower animals themselves, which
| these experiments have been the means
of comforting; and we propose to set
forth some of these benefits in Il man
ner calculated to be ineligible to non
medical readers.
| The words experimentation on liv-
| ing animals" cover a very wide range
| of procedure; and it may therefore be
desirable, in the first place, to attempt
| to classify experimental work with
| reference to its nature and objects.
| Experiments are performed:
1. AS an orderly series, intended. to
semblages of organs in the human or
animal body.
| 2. AS detached proceedings, intended
to decide some single questions which
may arise during the course of an i'll
ness, or in the progress of a medicO-
legal investigation; such question, for
example, as the practicability and ap-
plicability of a proposed operation, or
the nature Of a poison which defies
chemical analysis.
| 3. Either singly or in series. for the
purpose Of ascertaining the initial and
ultimate action of some drug upon the
human organism, with the view either
of testing it's value as remedial agent,
or of guarding, by antidote or other
wise, against it's injurious effects.
| 4. incubation and feeding expert
ments. intended to identify the specific
microbe of some disease, and to ascer-
tain whether, and, If so, in what degree
it's virulence is capable of being destroy
ed or mitigated by cultivation or other
| circumstances.
| Besides the experiments which fall
under one or other Of the foregoing
groups, there may be others which it
would be difficult to classify; but the
groups will serve to include the greater
number, and each will furnish illustrl-
tons of valuable results which could
probably have been attained in no other
! manner.
| AS a conspicuous example of the first
group we may recall to mind the expert
mcnts of DR.. William Harvey. by which
he discovered the circulation Of blood.
There may be thousands Of educated
people to whom this phrase is n phrase
and nothing more; but the work of
Harvey bears about the same relation
to the subsequent progress Of medicine
as that Of Calico to the subsequent
progress of astronomy.
To the physician Of the present day
the ignorance of animal functions
which prevailed before Harvey, and
which his discoveries served in time to
dispel, can scarcely be realized by any
effort Of the imagination; and it would
| be impossible to conceive of any pro-
gress in physiology or of any progress
made prior to the completion of his
work. Every portion Of that work.
from it's commencement to it's close
| Jas accomplished and established by
experiments upon living animals, and
sould have been accomplished in no
other way. The king placed the deer
of the royal parks at Harvey's disposal
for this special purpose, and came him
self to witness the experiments as soon
as the results were sufficiently declared.
I The work which Harvey accomplish
ed for the benefit of all future genera
| tons of the human race has been so
fruitful that it is scarcely possible to
point to any subsequent discovery In
| physiology or in medicine which has
not more or less directly followed from
| it.
In order to discover a second example
! of the kind Of experimentation which
we have placed in the first group we
may pass from the circulatory to the
nervous system, which will furnish us
with an instance at least as strong, as
that which has been already dealt with.
At the beginning Of the present cen
tury the ideas which were entertained
with regard to the functions Of the
| different parts Of the nervous system
ere chaotic, and, so far as they were
coherent, were mostly erroneous. 1t
| was known that animals moved, and
that they felt, and that motion and
feeling were in some way dependent
upon the integrity of the brain, the
spinal cord and the nerves issuing fro1u
or entering them. Beyond this there
was nothing, and there was absolutely
no power to discover either the nature
or the seat Of any nervous disease.
Sir Charles Bell, by researches which
were entirely experimental, and which
were carried on during the years be-
tween 1907 and 1896, took the first
great step toward educing order out
Of chaos. lie proved that the nerves
connected with the anterior portion of
the spinal cord ministered only to mo-
ton, and that those connected with the
posterior portion ministered only to SEN
sation. 1t Is worth while to note, at
time when accusations of inhumanity
are freely brought against experiment
tiers, that the completion of Bells in
vestgations was delayed for years, be
cause he could not bring himself to
from his operations. He rendered it
possible, for the first time, to analyze
the symptoms Of paralytic affections,
and to refer them to disease Of this or
Of the other structure. A few years