The evening times., 1896-03-05
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Not Merely sentiment.


ing OF the Anthropoloefcal Society which
was held last evening at he Cosmos Club
your Morning Times reporter says:
"Mr. Kennedy OF the opposition was called
on By Gen. Sternberg. He defined the
term of vivisection as not to include inocu.
iation. He presented no argument other
than an appeal to sentiment and humane
| feeling"
III the rev minutes courfeously acco rded
to me late in the evening 1 could not sax
very much, and what did say was not ex-
ciusiyeiy an appeal to sentiment and hui
| name feeling" but mainly in dsproof. upon
high authority, OF the claim OF one of the
, earlier speakers that Harvey's alleged dis
covery OF the circulation OF he blood and
Hunters method OF treating the arteries
We're due to vivisectional experiments on
the lower animals.
In regard to Harveys discovery, quoted
from Mr. Lawson TAFT. F. r. c. s.. who has
examined every such experiment recorded
by Harvey, and holds THAT it is only our
insular pride (Grcat Britaiu's) which has
claimed for him the merit OF the discov-
cry Mr.. TAFT, who is himself oDe of The
greatest OF living surgeons, said. In his ad-
dress on THE Uselessness of yiyisection"
before the Philosophical Society of Biz
mingbam. referring to the claims set up for
Harvey:
THAT he made any solid contribution to
the facts of the case by vivisection is con-
clusively disproved, and this was practi-
cally admitted before the commission by
such good authority as DR.. Acland aud DR..
Lauder Brunton. The circulation was not
proved till Malpighi used the microscope,
and, though in that observation he used a
vivisectionale experiment. his proceeding was
wholly unnecessary, for he could better and
more easily have used the webb of the frogs
root than its lung. 1t Is, moreover, perfectly
clear that were 1t incumbent on any one to
prove the circulation OF the blood now as
new theme. 1t could not be done by any
vivisectional process, but could at once be
satisfactorily established by a dead body
and an injecting syringe. In fact. think
might almost say that the systemic cir
culation remained incompletely proved un-
til the examination OF In jected tissues By the
microscope had been made"
AS to Hunters method, quote as fol-
lows from the testimony of Sir William
Ferguson, the queens surgeon and n Fellow
OF the Royal Society, before the parlia-
nentory commission:
John Hunter. who was one of our
greatest Psychologists, and allowed to
DE one OF our greatest surgeons also, and
may be said to this day to stand at the
head OF what is called scientific surgery
In this country, is specially celebrated for
an operation which he devised on the ar
teries. That operation for sixty or eighty
years stood as one OF the most brilliant in
surgery, and in so far as / have been
able 10 make out land have inquired into
the subiecO Hunters first experiment. il
1T might SO be called, was done on the
human subject. and it was long after he
had repeated his operations on the human
subject, and others had repeated it, that
the fashion Of tying arteries on the lower
animals originated or was developed. That
fashion was quite iustiriab,c at the time;
1t ls no longer now jus,ifinble. But in
regard 10 the surgical aspect of the case,
the experiment might have been left en-
tirely untouched. for Hunter had already
experimental and developed the fact on
the human subject
II time had suffioed / could have sub
mitted much other evidence in support of
my proposition that viyisectors claim too
much for vivisection. Perhaps you will
let me quote, in closing. a sentence or two
from Mr.. Tait on that point:
If the method of obtaining evidence by
torture was occasionally successful (ailud-
ing TO the use of thumb-screw and rack in
courts of iustice,. there can be little doubt
that. as rule, it failed and led the in
Guirers astray. So, 1 say, IL has been
with vivisection as 4 method OF research
1t has constantly led those who have en-
ployed 1t into altogether erroneous con-
ciusions and the records teen with instances
in which not only have animals been fruit
lessly sacrificed. but human lives have
been added to the list OF victims by reason |
of its false light
CRAMMOND KENNEDY.
March 4. |