The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-12-15
PLEA FOR JUSTICE
Senator Gallinger Replies to State
ment by DR.. Keene Regarding
-..'" Vivisection.
An Appeal From Selfshness to al.
truism-The Useless Torture
.,. ~ of Animals.

er of New Hampshire, who is also a mem
Der of the medical profession, has given
out a letter in reply to a published letter
of DR.. w. w. Keene Of Philadelphia, sent
him a week ago. In this letter. DR.. Keene
claimed that his knowledge obtained from
vivisection had enabled him to locate a
blood 'clot, on the brain of Midshipnan
Aiken and thus by an operation to save
his life. In his reply. Senator Gallinger |
says: ~r-1.s. r -. z...c ~. ,...
"Reviewing your letter Of Dec. 5, no.
tice four points,: !
'First-That self-advertising is prohib-
tied by the ethics of our profession.
"Second-That Misrepresentation is |
forbidden by the ethics of mankind. No
measure which would prohibit vivisecton
CT prevent any of the experiments which |
you claim were necessary to give you
the requisite knowledge in the Aiken
case, has ever been introduced by me In
the senate, nor has any such legislation
been recommended by me to the senate.
Your statement that have been engaged
in efforts to secure 'i1ihuman and cruel
legislation is without the slightest war
rant in fact. / have been engaged in ef-
forts to secure humane legislation that
would prevent cruelty.
"Third-That your argument turns en-
tirely on an assumption that cannot be
maintained, namely, that the location of
affections in the brain of man have been
determined by experiments on animals.
The brains Of animals differ from the
brain of man and from one another, so
that stimulation will produce one effect
en- one animal and another on another
animal. Long history of experiments on
brains of animals has shown that it is
rot only unsafe to reason from the brains
of animals to those of men, but that such
reasoning is not the same between the
brain of one animal and that Of another.
1t has been so generally with animal ex-
pertinent in some for upon man that
had established fact with regard to any
species Of animals the next thing is, now
let us see if it is the same in man. The
expermenters, therefore, can say by ex-
perimentin some form upon main that
sometimes the result was similar and
sometimes not. That such experiments
upon man as results of reasoning from
the lower animals have been to a great
result disastrous is certain, for it is the
testimony CT great surgeons and physi-
ologists. r.
"Fourth-That you ignore, in your
direct appeal to sefishness, that altruism
which is the principle Of moral progress.
To practice cruelty even in the hope Of
helping humanity is to hurt it and to de-
lay the advance of civilization.
I'm view of that reply do you not think
that your charge against me that am
engaged in efforts to- secure inhuman
and cruel legislation should be with
drawn, especially, so when we have I'M
doubted testimony to the fact that the
experimenter is in the habit Of plunging
dogs for thirty seconds into boiling water,
that another fastens a dog to the dis
secting table, and discarding the use of
| anesthetics, stands above it with large
| empty stone bottle, with which he strikes
with all his strength a dozen violent
! blows fon the stomach, while the same
| experimental sa sts he dislocates both of
the shoulders, doing 1t with difficulty.
Another experimenter claims that lie
has 'consecrated' more than eighty large
animals, mostly mules and horses to
the EXTREMIST torture possible, as he tells
us, not to solve any problem in anatomy,
| but simply to see if he could produce ir-
| ritation of the spinal cord. Another says
| he has invented a new machine which he
I calls his 'tormenter,' and in this hend1sh
DEVICE: which had first been quilted with
| long, thin nails animals are moved about,
| racked with torment. torn, twisted and
lacerated, hour by hour, until their ma
| ture could no longer endure and death
comes as a tardy relief That experiment
err says: I would take a paw or bit OF
skin of the animal and by placing it be-
tween pincers, torture the animal. I car
lift it up by this means and torture 1t by
all sorts of ways and adds that these
experiments are repeated day after day
with much delight and extreme patience
for the space of a year.
IF to attempt to prevent such barbar'
Gus practices brings me under YOU
condemnation I am willing to have the
case submitted to the judgment Of the
people.
Are you sure, sir, that you saved the
life Of Midshipman Aiken? Are not blood
clots frequently, dispelled by the process
of nature and is it not fact that II
many such experiments death has result
ed because of the operation? Your claim
that you located the blood clot because
Of experiments upon animals may or ma!
not be true, as we have the highest posi-
BILE authority for believing that such ex
periments are often absolutely withou
value.
ION the general question of the Valu'
Of yivisection, which have never under
taken to interfere with, when humanel.
practiced, it may be well for me to sa!
that I am fortified in my position by tn
opinions of many of the leading scientist
of the world including such well-know1
names as that of the late Lawson Tate
the greatest ovariotomist of the last cen
tury, and by Sir enjarnin Ward Richard
son, the distinguished English physician
surgeon and scientist, author OF re-
markable book on Biological Experimen
tation,' who acknowledges himself to be {
viyisector, but who gives warning to thu
profession that modern experimentation
tends to unfit the physician for the dis
charge of his duties, summing up tn
opinion in these words: Were to agar
deliver course of physiological lecture!
to qualified hearers I should make thu
experimental demonstrations on living
animals as few and far between as wa:
compatible with duty. They would be ex
ceptional and painless from beginning tt
end"
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