The Washington herald., 1911-03-04

| Vivisection as an institution,
those who practice it, and the re-
suits derived were scored in vigor-
Gus terms yesterday afternoon by a
tribunal composed of members of
the Anti-Vivisection Society of
Washington, led by DR.. Herbert
Snow, an eminent English ply
sician, who for more than nineteen
years made q special study of can
GER in the Cancer Hospital of Lon
don.
DR.. Snow, who has the accent of
a German, began by literally faying
medical men who practice that
most pernicious of all pursuits and
whose operations are menace and
la blot on civilization.
MILLIONS HAVE SUFFERED.
They have never yet gained an iota
of good by vivisection, or advanced the
| science OF surgery or medicine, and have
| inflicted suffering on untold millions of
harmless creatures" DIR. Snow said.
Much loud applause greeted the doctors
remarks, sent through the big red room
of the New Willard Hotel from the
dainty hands of women, many of whom
wore big picture hats decorated in the
latest mode with feathers and wings from
rare birds.
Not only utterly useless are expert
ments on living animals, but the cruelty
that goes with the researches is a foul
blot on humanity at large" DR.. Snow
continued 1T should be abolished If II
takes a century Qoud applause), and the
men and women here must take up the
work and see it finished to a happy end.
What 1 say is not gospel the speaker
continued, but years of scientific study
has convinced me that never in the
history of the world has aIpractice been
so abused and unnecessary as vivisection.
Between the structure of the human
organism and that of the lower animals
exists a great gulf, unbridgeable by ex-
periments gained one from the other.
To show the difference between the two
classs Of animals-the human and the
creatures of the fields-I viii say that
a glass of lemonade, so much enjoyed
in the summer time, contains enough
citric acid to kill a cat or a dog.
-'Calt, loved by the buffalo, who sought
it for miles on the grassy plains, is fatal
to chickens; prussic acid, deadly to rDan,
can be taken with impunity by the hrse
and the hyena, while of course, a goat
can eat anything.
Increases Mortality.
1T has been proved that in cases of
diphtneria, typhoid fever, and other dis
eases, the mortality has been greater
than before where antitoxins have been
used by the physician. Take, for exam
pie. diphtberia. Most persons have been
lulled into the belief that the serum is
intaIlible, and, consequently, they have
been more willing to expose themselves
to it j can prove by statistics that the
mortality has been greater since the anti
toxin was discovered than before.
THE same applies to the plague, which
has carried off millions, and to the cure |
for snake-bite, so advertised among med |
ical men, yet every year in India 10000 |
are carried into the great beyond
DR.. Snow told of the dangerous after !
effects of these ''nostrums," and warned |
his hearers against it.
He aimed a severe blow at physicians
of this country who claimed they had |
discovered a serum for the cure of the /
deadly tetanus by saying it was utterly |
useless and nothing more or less than |
a pure fake"
DIR. Snow also made the statement that
since the discovery of these serums spi-
al meningitis had been on the increase,
due to the use of the discovery"
He saved his biggest bomb to-the last,
|