The Washington herald., 1911-02-01

tons, has been secured Dy TINS metnOo.
Even physicians, who like most men
rarely acquaint themselves with the
sources of their knowledge. realize but
little how helpless they would be in the
Interpretation of symptoms and the ap-
plications of methods of diagnosis and OF
treatment if they were deprived OF the
physiological knowledge gained by the
experimental method. But great as have
been the achievements of experimental
medicine they have led US only over the
threshold of the domain awaiting explora-
tion with the promise of greater triumphs
to come.
1T is impossible to suppose that the
men and women who oppose animal ex-
perimentation can have any realization of
the diminution in human suffering and
disease which has come from this source.
If they had. would even the most ten
der-hearted fail to see on which side of
this question is the cause of mercy and
humanity?
Il have used harsh terms in character
izing the anti-vivisectionist propaganda,
and l do so reluctantly, for excellent men
and women have been misled into sup
porting it, but 1 believe that such terms
accurately describe most of the books and
leaflets and tracts spread broad
cast by anti-vivisection societies, as
well as their exhibits. These give ut
terly false impressions of the nature of
animal experimentation and of the con-
ditions surrounding it. The laboratories
are pictured as denS of torture, the eX-
perimenters as brutes, and the animals
as suffering unspeakable agonies while
being dissected alive.
Not Regarded a. Cruel.
Animal experimentation as practiced
to-day is not cruel. for cruelty is the
I s,,a;~
and in no use of animals for the benefit
of man is equal solicitude exercised to
avoid the infliction of unnecessary pain.
Anaesthetics are used whenever the con-
ditions of the experiment permit. and
this is in the vast majority of all painful
vivisectional experiments. Operations
upon an anaesthetized animal which is
killed before recovering consciousness in
wolves no more suffering than if the
animal were first killed and then dis
Sected.
The great majority of physiological
experiments. which are the special alb
horrence of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., are of
this character. Over 80 per cent of the
experiments upon animals are not vivi-
sections at all.
Most Of the instances of alleged abuse
of animal experimentation within recent
years in this country are not abuses at
all, but I do not deny that unjustifiable
and cruel experiments have been made.
These. however. are to-day most eXcep-
tional in this country, and they do not
justify the enactment of such statutes as
those for which the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
are clamorirg. which would do far more
harm than by any possibility good by
hampering useful and proper experimental
ton.
ShOn16 N PHAnRr HnndA
"Unquestonably the practice of animal
experimentation should be i'll proper
hands. Such experiments should never be
done without a serious purpose and with
every precaution to avoid unnecessary
suffering.
These are the conditions of such ex-
perimentation to-day in the country, and
they are sufficiently safeguarded by the
high character and humane sentiments
of the medical profession and scientific
investigators. by the general laws re-
lating to the prevention of cruelty, and
by the provision in many of the laws
that experiments upon animals shall be
made only under the auspices Of incor-
porated universities, medical colleges,
and scientific and health laboratories.
Science has waged a long warfare,
through the centuries, for freedom of in
vestisation. The last of its battles is
being waged to-day for freedom of ex-
perimental research in nedicine / do
not doubt the issue Of this battle, but
1 conceive it to be the duty of the pub
lie and Of the press to support the cause
of freedom in this contest. which is like
wise that of true humanity
Wilson FavOrs Publicity.
Publicity in politics was evidently the
hobby Of Gov. Woodrow Wilson. of New
Jersey. Mr.. Wilson said he was entirely
opposed to the ''all-in-the-lodge'' meth
DDS of modern political bosses. He was
severe in his comments upon the per-
sons who think the public is it's special
property and said in part:
Really, what we are after in the
field of politics is to drive everything
into the field of facts. drive everything
into the open. The root of all evil in
politics, in privacy, and concealment-
After All, when you think of the things
of which we have been complaining, they
are summed up in this, that the people
do not know and therefore cannot con-
troll the processes OF their own politics.
MY very distinguished colleague. Pres
ident Patten, of Princeton, once said that
II is characteristic of men of our time
that they will get along with perfectly
pieces of ideas, and go on,
as he quantity expressed it, all their lives
wearing a coat they capnot button up
the belly without splitting it in the
back.
Now, that is just about our present
condition. The coat wd are wearing is
a coat which lis based upon this old doc
trine that man may do what he will
with his own. that he may build I'D his
own private fortunes in any manner that
suits him, provided he does not do a
direct criminal wrong to another, and it
is no business of the public to intervene
and determine in any degree how his pri- |
vate business is conducted.
Need New Code.
LAS matter of fact, almost none Of |
our private business can now properly |
be described as private business at ALL |
the reach of it, the complexity Of il, has |
come to be such that it affects whole |
and you cannot segregate !
it. you cannot treat it as If it were the |
a property right when the effects Of the |
right are community changes. |
and therefore, We cannot button this |
coat down the belly without splitting it |
down the back. We need q new coat, a |
new coat Of doctrines. namely, that busi-
ness on it's present scale is the service |
Of communities for private profits, and |
that it is legitimate only in proportion as
It serves.
The same is true of politics. Politics
has been in recent years tied'to this pri-
vate arrangement of board OF directors |
sitting behind closed doors and admins
.ering everybodys business as II 1t were