The Saint Paul globe., 1902-12-15
Aiken Case Declared Not to Prove Alb
soIute Need of Experiments
on Animals
SCIENCE NEEDS NOT
ASSISTANCE OF TORTURE
inhuman and Monstrous Experiments
Reported by Men Claiming to Work
for Humanity-AIl Required Experts
ments Can Be Painless if Desired.

Gtor Gallinger, of New Hampshire, who
s. also a member of the medical profess
son, tonight gave out the following
letter in reply to the published letter
of DR.. w. w. Keane, of Philadelphia,
sent him a week ago:
United States Senate, Washington, D.
c., Dec. 10, 1902.-Dear Sir: Review
ing your letter of Dec. 5, 1902, which
you gave TO the press of the United
States respeeting your success in the
case of M3Zshipman Aiken, 1 notice
four Defasssses
Pfrst-fhat self-advertising is prohibited
by the ethics of our profession.
Second-That MISREPRESENTATION is for
hidden by the ethics of mankind.
No measure which would prohibit vivi-
section or prevent any of the experiments
which you claim We're necessary to give
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 "fnhuman and cruel
legislation is without the slightest war
rant in fact. have been engaged in eff
forts to Secure humane legislation that
would prevent cruelty. The bills which
have favored II enacted only regulate
YIvisection in the District of Columbia, so
as to prevent admitted cruelty and should
have the support of every humane per-
son.
Improved Assumption.
Third-That your argument turns en-
t1rely 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 on one
animal and another ON another animal
Long history of experiments on brains of
animals has shown that it is not only un-
safe 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 experimentation
When such experiments had established
a tact with regard to any species of ami
mails the next thing is Nov let us see
if it is the same in man. The experi-
menters, therefore, can say experiments
IN IN some form upon man and sometimes
Inc Inc result was similar and sometimes not.
mat such experiments upon man as re-
suits of reasoning from the lower animals
nave been to a great extent disastrous is
e9Tea tor apd It IS the testimony Of great
ment upon man l mean in general oper-
allons upon human beings with the ex-
pectatlon that they would have the same
result as they had had with animals
foufth-That you ignore, in your direct
appeal to selhshness that altruism, which
IS the principle of moral progress. To
practice cruelty even in the hope of help
ing humanity is to hurt it and to delay
the advance of civilization. Recurring to
me suggestion already made that l have
not introduced into the senate nor advo-
Gated any bill prohibiting vivisection, 1
peg to say the purpose has been to regu-
"a iate III the practice, thereby removing from
which have shocked the moral sense - Of Of
our people. You will doubtless recall the
TACT that when you gave testimony before
the committee on District of Columbia on
the 21st day. of February 1900. l asked
If you thought it proper for congress to
Shaef a law saving that a dog or horse
sSesthetfcs before being cut to pieees or
khe nerves torn from the BRAIN and that
fou promptly. replied: Il think it would
pe most unWiSe legiSlatio
Horrible Torture.
In view of that reply do you not
think that your charge against me
that l am engaged in efforts to Sc
cure lnhuman and cruel legislation
should be withdrawn, especially So
when we have undoubted testimony to
the fact that one eXperimenter is in
the habit of plunging dogs for thirty
seconds into boiling water that anoth-
er fastens dog to the dissecting table
and dfscarding the Use of anaesthetics
stands above it with a large empty
stone bottle with which he strikes
with all his strength a dozen violent
blows on the stomach, while the same
experlmenter says he dislocates both
OF the shoulders, doing it with diff
culty. Another eXperimenter claims
that he has "consecrated" more than
eighty large animals, mostly mules
and horses to the EXTREMIST torture
positively, as he tells US, not to solve
any problem in anatomy, but simply
TO see If he could produce irritation of
the spinal chord. Another SAYS he
has invented new machine which he
calls his ''tormentor,' and in this fiend-
1sh device, which had. first been quilt
ed" with long thin nails, animals are
moved about, racked with torment.
torn, twisted and lacerated, hour by
hour, until their nature could no long
er endure and death comes as tardy
relief That experimenter says: 81
would take a paw or bit of skin of the
animal and by placing it between pin
GERS, torture the animal. l can lift
1t UP by this means and torture it by
all sorts of ways, and adds that these
experiments are repeated day after day
with much delight and extreme pa
bence for the space of a year"
If to attempt to prevent such bar
barous practices brings me under your
condemnation. [ 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 dfspelled by the
process OF nature and is it not~a fact
that in many such experiments Aeath
has resulted because of the operation?
Your claim that you located the blood
clot because of experiments upon am
mails may or may not be true, as we
have the highest possible authority
for believing that such experiments
are often absolutely without value
Scientists have asserted that expert
ments upon animals in the matter of
localizing brain functions have led to