The Washington herald., 1913-12-08

Many Of the delegates to the Interna-
tional Anti-vivisection and Animal Pro-
lection Congress-. which meets this after
noon at the Releigh Hotel, attended the
services at St Thomas Church, near
Dupont Circle. yesterday morning, and
listened to a special sermon by the rec
tor, Rev. DR.. C. Ernest Smith. exploiting
the principles for which the congress
stands.
Aside from the plea for protection.
kindness. and mercy to the animals over
which God has given man dominion" ="
DR.. Smith praised the Washington HUI
name Society's work. linked the high cost
of living with the determination of birds,
and lamented the cruelty and fearful cost
attending the wearing Of aigrettes by
women. AS an aggressive anti-vivisec-
ZIONIST, DR.. Smith devoted a large part
Of his sermon to an analysis Of argu-
ments for and against. He said, in part:
Literally vivisection means the cutting
up Of living animals, but this is only a
small part of its full tenor. which covers
all kinds of wounding, bruising, inoculat-
ing, changing CT vital organs, and keep
ing an agonized animal under inspection
for weeks.
Yet here we meet with the first note
of discord: Some believe in vivisection,
terrible as 1t is, holding that it is bene-
ficial to the human race. Others do not
believe in it at all, and I am frank to
confess that I am one OF those who do
not believe in il. And I do not for these
reasons: First, / believe we have no
right to do evil that good may come;
to me vivisection is fundamentally i'm
moral Secondly, because doubt whether
it has really done much good. Eminent
medical men like DR.. A. Wall and DIR.
Forbes Winslow have challenged the
medical world to show the good It has
done. DIR. Winslow. in particular, claims
that only ) per cent OF his profession be-
fects ii must have upon the medical prac-
titioners themselves. believe our medi-
cal men are among our noblest and best
citizens They stand very high indeed
in their self-denying service to our COM
mon humanity, but the man does not
live who can practice cruelty and not
himself become bye and bye as hard as
the neither milestone.
Can stand on Common Ground.
And yet. wide as the chasm is be-
tween these two classes, the people who
believe, and the people who do not be-
heve, in Yivisection, they can get to-
gether and stand on common ground as
they fight against vivisection's terrible
abuse. Any young medical man, even
IL he knows no more than a bedm aker
in a first class hospital, has yet full
liberty to carve a living creature. He
has not the ability, he has not even the
purpose to do anything that would ad-
vance the cause of science. He is simply
experimenting for his own pleasure.
Let the master Of surgery, il you will,
under restrictions of license and control, |
experiment with a view to saving life or
adding to the sum total Of mans knowl- |
edge, but deny the right to all others |
And deny even to the masters OF surgery |
the right to allow the bleeding, wounded |
forms of the dogs and rabbits, and other |
animals on which they experiment. to lie |
wounded and bleeding for days after they |
have been experimented upon. Surely It |
is fiendish cruelty to allow these poor |
wounded creatures to lie in suffering un-
til death relieves them"