Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-26
The Arguments For and Against
Its Regulations.
SENATOR GALLINGER PRESENTS THEM
A Bill to Restrict the Practice in
the District.
ITS P A S s A G. E U R G ED

on the District of Columbia, providing,
first, for the use of anaesthetcs in all pain
full experiments on living vertebrate ami
mails, the so-called incubation experiments,
tests of drugs and medicines and cases Of
recovery from surgical procedure being ex
pressly exempted from this requirement:
second, for the licensing of all expert
mentors by the District Commissioners, ex-
cept those who are duly authorized officers
of the government Of the United States or
Of that of the District of Columbia; third,
for the prohibition of vivisection in the
public schools and in exhibitions for the
general public; fourth, for the inspection of
all places Of experiment by inspectors to be
appointed by the President of the United
States. Senator Gallinger. who, as Is well
known, is a successful physician, submit
ted with the bill an elaborate and interest
ing report. prepared by himself, in which
he sets forth the arguments on both sides
of the question advanced at the public
hearing last month before the Senate com
mittee on the District of Columbia, and in
communications to it, and announces the
conclusion in vigorous language that vivi-
section has been grossly abused in this
country. as abroad. and that its regula-
ton and restriction, prescribed by parlia-
ment in England twenty years ago, are
necessary and desirable here. He sets
forth the opposition of many physicians
and scientists to any such legislation, and
also the advocacy of 1t by many other ply
sicians, together with many of the leading
men and women in the country. prob
ably no bill was ever presented to Con-
gress," says the report, which received
the Endorsement Of so distinguished a list
OF men and women as this one" and he
cites over a hundred and fifty names of
prominent signers of the petition for the
bill, headed by Justices Harlan, Brown,
Brewer, White Peckham and Shiras of the
United States Supreme Court; Justices
. ON and Nn1a tt,., Volt
of the District Supreme Court; Chief JUS
tice Richardson and Justices Mott and We'll
don of the Court of Claims; Bishop keane,
Bishop Satterlee, Bishop Hurst Cen and
Mrs. Miles. Mrs. u. s. Grant, Mrs. Hearst
Mrs. Letter, Mrs. Dahlgren, Mrs. Shiras
Mrs. Brown. Miss Emma Morton, Mrs
Greedy, Mrs. John Davis, Mrs. Teller, Mrs
w. M. Stewart and others.
Physicians Differ on the Subject.
The report is very long. and yet it is
interesting throughout. and will excite
much attention. /. first gives the text of
the original Mcmillan bill. stating that
after a hearing before the District Com
mlssioners it was referred by them to
committee, consisting of Surgeon General
George NJ. Stcrnberg. United States army:
DR.. William c. Woodward, health officer
Of the District. and Mr.. Henry Is. +. Mac
farland, Ito consider the bill and report
what notifications, If any, Were desirable
This committee could not :,Sree, as the
medical men insisted that 10 leg;sla ticn
whatever was needed, while Nj. Macfar
land endeavored to carry OUT the intention
Of the Commissioners. The result was tina.
Doctors Sternberg and Woodward sub
mitted protests against the proposed leg
islation while Mr.. Macfarlani advised the
enactment into law of the modified bill
| which your committee have unanimously
agreed to report, and which he had prepar-
| ed to meet the objections which had been
raised to particular provisions of the orig
inal bill 1t is proper to say at the outset
| that there is sharp difference OF opin-
| ion among medical men as to the value
! of viviSection The ultra scientists assume
| to find in it the key to the great mystery
| of life. and loudly proclaim that the dis
covCrieS already made warrant the claim
! that human suffering is 20 be mitiGatcd.
! and human life greatly prolonged, through
| the instrumenta,ity Of torture and expert
mentation upon the lower animals. On the
| other hand, multitudes of educated, hu-
name physicians, who have learned by
| patient research and large experience the
value of other methods TO secure the same
! results deny that any real advances have
| been made in medical knowledge in the
| laboratory of the biologist, while at the
| same time they deprecate and Cenounce the
| crIelties inflicted upon dumb animals by
| viVisectionistS. 1t was claimed before your
| committee that surgery of the abdomen
| has been brought to its present high stand
| ard through viviSection, and yet 1t is q
| fact that DR.. Lawson TAFT, the greatest
saying that instead of vivisection having
| in any way advanced abdominal surgery it
| has. on the contrary. retarded 1t.
The Anti-Toxin Serum.
TT is also claimed that through vivisection
| the so-called anti-toxin serum was discov-
| cred, and that through it's use the mortal
| ity from diphthera has been greatly re-
| duced. On the other hand, hundreds of the
| most eminent physicians affirm that the
chief value that anti-toxin possesses is the
| commercial value to those who deal in it,
| and that it is not yet demonstrated that it
has any special curative value in the treat
| ment of true diphtheria." The report
| quotes medical testimony to this effect. and
incidentally intimateS that the proportion
| Of cures claimed for anti-toxin is largely
| increasing by counting "old-fashioned sole
| throat and follicular tonsilitis' as diph-
| iberia. Extracts are given in this connec-
| ton from papers read by DR.. Joseph Win
! ters of the Willard Parker Hospital of
! New York in 1891, and again before the
| New York Academy Of Medicine On the
| 21st of this month, in which he attacked
| the use of anti-toXin either to cure or
prevent diphtheria. The report continues:
| Scores of other eminent physicians could
| be quoted who hold the same view, thus
| conciusively demonstrating that the claims
of vvisectioniSts that they are entitled TO
the credit of this wonderful discovery will
| have more force after it has been shown
| that anti-toxin is of any real value.
| Inc writer OIL tNlS report, VINO mOdeStiy
| claims to possess slight degree of medical
| Knowledge. has carefully investigated the
subject, and is convinced that anti-toX:n is
still on trial, q view concurred in even by
many medical men who believe that its
value in the treatment of dphtheria will
ultimately be proved and accepted, but who
naturally are rather skeptical in view of
| the fate that befeIl Kochs lymph, Brown
| Sequard's elixir of life and many other
| widely heralded medical "fads.' And it
may be added in this connection that the
alarming stories about hydrophobia that
| the disciples of Pasteur (vivisectionists) re-
| late, have, In the opinion of large part of
| the medical profession, little, if any foun-
dation in fact Hydrophobia is disease
SO rare that many physicians in large prac-
| tice for quarter of century have never
seen a case, and yet the Pasteur Institutes
are crowded with people bitten by dogs en-
| tirely free from rabies, and so called sci
| ence encourages the humbug."
Prof. Pnrvin Quoted.
The report quotes Prof. Theophius Par
| vim of Jefferson Medical College, Philadel-
| I,kia, in an address before the American
| Academy Of Medicine. May 4, 1891, in which
| he described a class of vivisectionists, who
| seemed seeking useless knowledge to be
Hind to the writhing agony, and deaf to
| the cry of pain of their victims, and who
| have been guilty of the most damnabe
| cruelty, without the denunciation of the