New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-01-31
POPULAR OBSERVATIONS.
VIVISECTION IN ENGLAND.
OPERATIONS PERFORMED WITHOUT An
AESTHETICS.
THE VALUE OF ANTIToXIN DEN1ED-sTATIs-
TICS on THE OTHER SIDE.

hes recently come to this country for the purpose
OF Recurring on vivisection. OF which Tor many
wears he has made a study and &c when Tor an
equal number Of years he has devoted his life' to
rcply as briefly as possible the somewhat tr!te
defence Of vNisection recently published In your
columns? First to the extent oil the p'aVtco
and the number Of experiments performed inc
number Of animals used annually must be counted
by hundreds Of thousands. In England where
practice is supposed to be regulated and restricted
by the State and where reports and returns are
ISSUED 10 the people annually. in lSS seVenty-Ne
hundred experiments were admitted, nearly wv
thirds OF which were performed without anes'he'-
les We know perfectly well from The puo4ished
statements OF American vivisectors th@' TINS rum
her is oouaned il exceeded in the uniteu
States The last issue of THE Journal OF fhysl-
o.ocy' contains details Of number Of experiments
b. American Vivisectors.
The restrictive law now in operation In Great
Britain Of which you speak IS not so rigid as you
appear TO think 1t does not prevent experiments
OF the severest nature from being performed. Men
come from all parts OF the world to perform eX-
perments in British laboratories-in fact, Britain
appears 10 be the happy bunting grounds ior Ior-
eign vivlsectors. 4 Chinese experimental LII"
Boom Kene gained an unenviable reputation some
five years ago IN consequence of certain expert
rants he performed in the laboratory at cam
bridge The details. taken from The Journal OF
Physiology for June. 1888. are as follows;
If the lower jaw Of one side be dsLoGa'ea anq
side be cut away~vessels being carefully lsatured
the base of the skull will be exposed and the large
trephine remove the cranlal bone ABOVE . .he
bony wall Of the juguar canal In such dissection
the roots may Just be ySe 10 Tmey the base
occipital bone and in doing TINS the eases pan
Is e cut the roots oS on e m d that the
tion is laborious and extremely apt to be fatal
1t Will Of course be noticed that there is no men,
zion here OF any anasthetic being used. These ex-
b,. dc al
1ust as bad have been performed while Englshmen
looked on approvingy. As 10 the use Of antes-
thetcs in physiology experiments, we who nave
made study Of this question and had actual ex-
perences In the laboratory. as l have. know that
such cannot be used in the vast majority OF ex'
rerments. AS a fact. experiment performed
under an@sthetics is useless to science and human
1ty. Many Of the highest authorities on PHYSIOLOGY
admit this. The late Sir William FERGUSON one oil
the most brilliant surgeons and expert operators
England II not the world. has ever seen, declared
the uselessness Of such experiments. The expert
ment" he said lis not Of the smallest value dur
.ng its performance. You cannot make a perfect
experiment on the animal until it Is in normal
condition. An animal is certainly not in normal
condition while it is under anesthetcs; it is no
longer itself It is dead. so to speak The expert
rnent must be worse than useless" II no anes-
rhetic is used the argument applies; the AMI
nal Is not in a normal state; pain throws the whole
mechanism out Of gear Pain up 10 certain point
increases the respiration beyond certain point
decreases IT, With the increase or decrease Of The
respiration the circulation varies The secretions
also vary. sometimes being profuse. sometimes be-
ing checked altogether.
All these facts have to be considered and allow
ances must be made for them. and most Of these
allowances are purely guesswork your readers VIII
see that vvisection is not by any means the exact
end perfect method OF investigation It's advocates
wish US 10 believe Those great benefits TO science
spoken of look nice paper, but do they really
exist In actual fact? The antitoxin cure for diph-
liberia IS one Of tho claims now usually put for
ward by advocates OF vvisection, yet notwith-
standing the extensive of antitoxin dphtheria
IS increasing in countries whore this labora-
tory-sent blessing has been adopted. England may
be called the home Of antoxin, yet, since It's intro
duction diphtheria has been Increasing week by
week. This days mall has brought me documents
giving statistics Of the deaths this disease in
London FOR four weeks ending November 8, during
which period the case-mortalty from l5.6 TO
Regarding the researches conducted at the Pas
teur Institute at Paris can speak from actual
perence and observation have seen many hun
dreds perhaps thousands. Of animals in the course
OF eXpermentatlon know thar these animals
suffer. and that considerably. have seen them in
ocu.ated in the eyes. and watched those eyes con-
veried into putrid craier-hke ulcers have seen
dogs suffering all the agoncs OF labOratory-pTo
fever anthrax tuberculosis cholera etc. all of
which produced by those muoa-talked-o of pain
lines caleG These diseases. Of course entail
great dea OF suffering to the animals so inoculaod.
Regarding the death rate from hyGrOphobla.
which your correspondent says is now only about
behalf OF PER cent, whereas ]; % per cent
virus. II would be interesting TO know from what
has never been as high as % per cent The experts
before the English Commission die not attempt to
Highest suthor;es ' Of France NJ L an among
Sy f sy per b Sf of Iea raS S o. nG
must not be forgotten that the Pasteur Institute
who have been only bitten licked or scratched by
strange or suspected animals Ny own experience
visited and carefully explored, led me to the con-
e,uso1 INA, tncy Woqd nec9r,e anyJddrg sha
l have seen great number OF patients inocu-
lated. The operation is performed under the most
disgusting and DEGRADING conditions Men. women
came time All are inocuiated in the abdomen; the
same syringe IS used. and only ceansed. perhaps
one great point in this question TO be over
Looked by most i not all me ady9catts OF viyisec-
Student OF physiology or Of medicine knows perfect
y WEI ,nat nSsnu n6 as sSs amer rom nan
upon a "a animal can Only show what may take
temperament is paced under precisely the same.
or similar, conditions; The experiment may be
skiM. but cannot go beyond showing what may take
place II an animal OF the same species is placed
nd on human are h o
Of verifying laboratory Experiments Professor
Rutherford great viyisector. now holding In
some very important admissions when before the
Royal Commission. which he'd In ENGLAND in
1915. He said: Il show the fact upon the dog leaV-
ing II 10 others 70 experiment upon man" THE
conclusion can be drawn"
DR. j. S. Pyle. IN The Peoria Medical Record Of
March :. 1886. made the honest admission that that
part os medical science which applies solely 70 inc
human constitution cannot be advanced without .
proper OF human subjects. That part Of nnedi-
cal science which refers directly 70 the human or
san!sm cannot be studied upon any other class OF
animals" -
This puts our case in a nutshell. The experiments
animals are and can only be Suggestion" Nan
must afterward become the subject OF exberrnenf
Boston Jan IS. 1888 ARTHUR WEsTCOTT
at meeting ot the Section OF Pediatrics of
the New York Academy of Medicine. held on
December 10 1896. Dr. J. Lewis Smith read the