Omaha daily bee., 1902-12-15
REPLIES TO VIVISECTOR
Senator Gallingsr Answers Keene's Asser-
lions in Aiken Case.
ONLY OPPOSED TO sENSELESs CRUELTY
Tells of NRmeIess Horrors and Claims
Experiments on Animals Can
Prove Little of value TO
Medical Men.

WASHINGTON, Dec. Ex-senator Gall
finger tonight gave out the following letter
In reply to that Of Or. W. W. Keene OF
Philadelphia. claiming that knowledge
gained through vivlsection had alone
saved the life Of Midshipman Aiken:
Dear Sir:-Reviewing your letter of De-
cember 5. which you gave to the press Of
the United States, respecting your success
in the case Of Midshipman Aiken, I note
four points:
First-That self-advertisement is prohib-
tied by the ethics Of your profession.
~Second-That Misrepresentation is for
hidden by the ethics Of mankind. No
measure that would prohibit viviseotlon
or prevent any OF the experiments which
you claim are necessary to give you the
requisite knowledge in the Aiken case, has
ever been introduced by me in the senate;
neither has any such legislation been rec
commended by me to the senate. Your state
ment that l have been engaged in efforts
to secure "inhumane and cruel legislation
is without the slightest foundation in fact.
| have been engaged in efforts to secure
humane legislation that would prevent
cruelty. The bills which l have favored
would, IL enacted, only regulate vlvisection
in the District of Columbia. so as to pre-
vent admitted cruelty, and should have the
support OF every humane person.
Brains Diner in Action.
Third-That your argument turns en-
tlrely on an assumption which cannot be
maintained, namely, that the locallzation
OF the functions in the brain Of man has
been determined by experiments on ami
mails. The brains of animals differ from
Il k-.g-. ~ ..a.. a~l ,I.A l1H.r - 49,
another. so that stimulation of a certain
part of the brain will produce a different
effect in different animals. Experiments on
the brains Of animals have shown that it is
not only unsafe to reason from the brains
Of animals to those of man, but that such
reasoning is not safe as between the brain
of one animal and that Of another. 1t has
been so generally with animal experiment
tation. When such experiment has estab-
lished a fact with regard to any species Of
animal the next thing was, now. let us
see IL II is the same In man." The ex-
perimenters, therefore, saw" by expert
ment in some form upon man, and some
times the result was similar and sometimes
not. That such experiments on man, as
results OF reasoning from the lower animals
have been to a great extent disastrous Is
certain, for 1t is the testimony of great
surgeons and psychologists. By expert
ment' upon man 1 mean, in general, opera
lions upon human beings, with the expecta-
tion that they would have the same result
as they had with animals.
Fourth-You ignore, in your direct APP
peal to selhshness, that altruism which is
the principle OF moral progress. To prac-
tice cruelty, even in the hope Of helping
humanity, is to hurt it and to delay the
advance OF civilization.
Recurring to the suggestion already
made that l have not introduced into the
! senate or advocated any bill prohibiting
vivisection, l beg to say that the purpose
has been to regulate the practice. thereby
removing from It the 'inhumane"- and
~"cruel', features which have shocked the
moral sense of our people.
You will doubtless recall the fact that
when you gave testimony before the COM
mittee on the District Of Columbia on Feb
ruary 2, 1900, l asked you II you thought
it improper for congress to enact a law
saying that a dog or a horse should be put
under the influence Of anaesthetics before
being cut to pieces or the nerves torn from
its brain, and that you promptly replied:
~ think It would be most unwlse legisla-
tlon." In view Of that reply, do you not
think that your charge against me, that I
am engaged in efforts TO secure inhumane
and cruel legislation, should be withdrawn
and especially SO when we have undoubted
testimony to the fact that one expert
menter is in the habit Of plunging dogs
for thirty seconds into boiling water; that
another fastens a dog to the dissecting
table and, discarding the use of anaes-
thetics, stands above 1t with a large empty
stone bottle, with which he strikes with all
his strength q dozen violent blows on the
head, while the same experimenter says
that he dislocates both the shoulders, doing
1t with dificulty.