The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HASKIN, Director,
Washington, ID. G.
THE CASE oF vIvI-sECTIoN.

Washington, D. c., Nov. 22.-Has
man the right to perform surgical
operations and to experiment with
dangerous drugs on the lower animals
in order to increase his knowledge of
surgery and of medicine?
This question has recently been
brought again to the public attention.
A bill was introduced into the United
States senate making it unlawful to
vivi-sect dogs in the District of Co
lumbia, and the senate judiciary COM
mittee held hearings upon the bill
which brought forth a distinguished
gathering of scientists to defend vivi-
section, and large number of'church
men and other persons to asSa1l it,
The question was threShed out with
unusual thoroness.
The English parliament recently de-
feated a similar bill. of which one of
it's opponents said that it was a test
case mot for the dog or for the medi-
cal profession, but for the intelligence
of the house of commons"
The public has been very largely
misled about vivi-section. The aver
age layman has very little idea of its
actual use and value. He knows that
some influential journals have ridi-
culed it, and that Mark Twain wrote
book against it. He knows also that
doctors generally regard it as an abso-
lutte necessity to their science. And
that is about all he knows.
The contentious of those who oppose
vivi-section are that man has no Gight
to inflict pain on the lower animals;
that medical science has not accom-
plished anything by the practice of
vivi-section, and that therefore it is
merely a futile infliction of cruelty.
The medical men agree that the un-
necessary infliction of cruelty is not
Justified. They admit that the right
of vivi-section has been abused. They
are in favor of proper legal control of
this right But they maintain that to
flee of lower animals is supremely
justifiable. In fact. they go further
and say that even human lives should
be sacrificed in experiment If much
greater numbers of human lives can
thereby be saved. And this has been
done repeatedly. The best known case
is that of the conquest of yellow fever,
in which several physicians volun-
teered and lost their lives to prove
that yellow fever is conveyed by the
mosquito. Men have also risked their
lives in the study of trench fever, of
influenza, and of pellagra.
OF course, the human sacrifice must
be voluntary, while the ANIMAL sacri-
flee in the nature of the case. must be
involuntary. But society approves and
applauds the sacrifice of few men
physicians, should it decry the sacri-
flee of few dogs to save many men?
AS to the value of vivi-section, the
doctors assert that nearly all of the
advances in medicine and surgery
made in the last fifty years have been
based directly or indirectly upon ex-
periments with living animals, and
many of these experiments were upon
dogs.
Before discussing the part the dog
plays in medical science, 1t should be
pointed out that the making and test
ing of all serqims and anti-toxins de-
pend upon the use of live animals
Sometimes the animal is not seri-
ously injured. sometimes he dies, and
sometimes he undergoes considerable
suffering. But the production of
smallpox vaccine, and of the diph-
iberia anti-toxin which saves SO
many child lives the inoculation
against typhoid fever which made our
army in France the first in history
not decimated by that disease, the
prevention of horrible death from
hydrophof3a when a person has been
bitten by a mad dog, are all depend
ent upon the use of live animals. To
discontinue the use of live animals for
these purposes would be to destroy
thousands of human lives in d year.
These serums and anti-toxins are
made in the bodies of animals by the
manufacturers and are tested in the
bodies of animals at the hygienic
laboratory of the United States pub
lie health service here in Washing
ton. This laboratory uses about fif-
teen thousand live animals every year.
Most of them are mice, rats, guinea
pigs and rabbits, but some of them
are dogs. These fifteen thousand live
ANIMALS which are sacrificed every
year save many times that number of
human lives. They are your protec-
tion against some of the most deadly
diseases. They also protect you
against fraudulent serums and anti
toxins. The doctors feel that they
are just as much justified in killing
these animals to save human life. IS
the farmer is in killing animals and
sending them to market to maintain
human life.
In some cases the animal must suf-
fer 1t is true. But it is a question of
whether the animal is to suffer or hu-
man beings are to die.
When you want quail on toast, YOU
do not debate whether the quail had
as good a asright to life Is you. When
your wife buys fur piece, she not
only deprives a fox of life but she
endorses the infliction of considerable
suffering on the trapped fox. Daily
we sacrifice animals to our own pur-
poses. We must do so to live. Often
we sacrifice them somewhat ruthless
~, causing them to suffer more than
is necessary. as when we take animals
in traps that do not kill. Animals
used for experiment in medical science
are allowed to suffer as little as pos
sible.
If your child were bitten by a mad
dog, and threatened with the horrible
death which Lydrophobia causes. Won
Observation-Disclosures