The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1910-04-14
VWsEC7|0N IS AID.
Prof. Angel Of University Of Chi
cago Defends It as Benefit.
Educator Declares Operator In Ex
perlments Is Merciful to Beasts
and Seeks Only knowledge
IL to Add to Skill Of Doctors.

/. Chicago.-That the surgical skill
and medical knowledge which is saw
ing thousands Of lives every year and!
making an annual decrease in the
death rate Is due largely to expert
ments on living animals, and that any
pain which 1t Is necessary to infict
Is justified by human necessity, is the
burden Of a series Of pamphlets which
the American Medical association Is
issuing from its Chicago headquarters
in answer to attacks by the anti-vivi-
s%ectionists.
Essays on the value of animal ex-
perimentation in f%urthering the knowl-
edge necessary for correct diagnosis
Of disease and for the treatment Of
cancer, tuberculosis and other danger.
,ous infections are included in the
series.
Prof. James r. Angel Of the Uni
versity of Chicago, and son Of ex-
President Angel of the University of
Michigan, contributes an unqualified
defense Of the ethics of animal exper-
imentation, taking issue with the state
ment that unnecessary cruelty Is prac-
ticed and declaring that in all reputa-
BILE laboratories anaesthetics always
are used.
1T should be remembered" he says
in this connection, that the selfish in
l~terests Of the operator almost inevita-
bly, and invariably make it to his ad-
vantage that the animal should suffer
as little as possible in order that its
vigor and vitality may be at the max
imum- But even if all experimenters
were hardened by their work into a
disregard Of animal pain, society
might still pronounce the value of
their results to outweigh this draw
back.
I'm the larger view, which looks to
the ultimate welfare Of society as a
whole, such men are among its most
valuable humanitarian members, what
ever their personal attitude toward
the animals with which they work"
In speaking of the administrations
lists argument that the results of ami.
NAL experimentation are merely of
scientific interest, Prof. Angel de-
clares that the progress Of science
comes closer to the lives Of all the
persons in the community than the
majority Of tAe people realize.
Science hiss too long masqueraded
in the popular mind as a realm of i'm
practical theory touching the life of
the common man in the most remote
way" he continues. "The contempt
Irary world appreciates increasingly
the falsity Of this view. In industry,
in commerce, in medicine and even in
government itself the scientific knowl-
edge Of yesterday is the basis of the
practical device Of to-day"
Declaring that too many people have
become unduly heated in the discus
sion, Professor Angel asks for a calm
and discriminating judgment on the
part of the general public.
For the sentimentalist," he says,
ITO whom all thought of 9ratuitous
suffering is abhorrent, probably no
argument can ever fail to justify Ger
tain forms of experimental procedure.
On the other hand, to the man famil
lar with the revolutionary advances in
science and medicine which have orig.
mated in the experimental use of an.
finals its condemnation seems the last
word Of a pernicious insanity"