The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-02-19
Voice Of the People.
Conccrnins Viyisetion.

Editor of The Tines Dispatch:
Sir.-May ! ask OF your acknowi-
edged courtesy space In your paper TO
answer In u general way the CAL of Or.
Christian. OF Harvard. 10 the Tri-
State Medical Association TO instruct
our people in the value TO human life
of experimentation upon animals?
In the history of the development of
as an inviolable law that no individual
or class can be trusted with unlimited
power without degrading both itself
and the majority 1t sways. The pure
doctrines Of Christ, seizeA upon after or
fair example that even immortal
principles may lead in the mind of
man to excuses ruinous TO the human
race. So intuitive u belief as the life
after death became in the hands of the
tEnorantly sincere and the intelligentIy
INSCRIPTIONS weapon that eventually
destroyed By fire and sword almost
100000 human beings in the Netherlands
alone.
But the law OF reaction asserts It.
self as the inevitable complement OF
evolution of thought which included
the invention of printing scculariZed
education. The dormant. but never
absent. spirit of humanity slowly erad-
icated from the minds of churchmcn
and of the people the belief In divine
authority for the inqusition. The law
of reaction, however. seeking justifica-
tion for the wrong done to the body In
behalf of tho soul, raised at last the
physical body, not only TO It's proper
moral nature. This opened the way
for the monumental, but one-sided.
achievements Of science. and blinded
the profession of healing to all ex-
cept the purely objective value. For
the pendulum. has swung back, and
the torture of the body for the sake
Of the soul has given place to the
belief that the physical life of the
the finest moral attributes OF the
race
He who from usage can torture I'M
moved sentient being will too often
cease In the end to draw the dis
tinction between one sentient being
~, University Of Pennsylvania, was
read May IS, 1908, before the Assoc
citation OF American Physicians at
Washington, telling Of inoculattons OF
years. all but twenty-siS Of them be-
! ing from ST. Vincent's Home for Found
lings. Orphans and Destitute Children
! at Philadelphia, many Of the injec.
tions being made into the eye, Moro
means they were infected with tn,
berculosis in modified form. and
some suffered very serious compiled.
tions, even threatening blindness
Archives of Internal Medicine, Decem.
Der Is, 1908. "Dr. a. Fl. Wentworth
senior assistant physician to the In
fants' Hospital Boston, made forty,
| five vivisections TAPPING the spinal
canals OF children. many Of whom
| dled.''-Boston Medical and Surgica
Journal. August 13. 1896.
| These instances Of vivisection upor
children, believe to represent small
minority, but profession which has
rejected all restrictions from Withou
must expect to be judged by It's Lowest
level OF professional inhumanity.
Does the history of the medical pro,
| fesslon warrant us in trusting Sc
bllnlly its wisdom with regard to Tho
lbody? The modern physician declines
/ a prescription for calomel upon this
ground, among others. that, being {
| poison, each dose leaves It's mark upor
the system. What or the inherited
marks OF centuries OF inordlnate dos
ings upon the physique of tho patien
| Of to-day? After hundreds of years
of overdosing, science has decided In on
own time tho better effect OF no dosinl
at ali save in specific cases. The hes
medical advice. seeking the ultimate
cause, has become a, direction toward
Isanitation and righs living In thu