Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-11-28
vv1AsHINGTON. D. c., Nov. 22,-Has

NV man the TlBlC TO perform surgical
" operations and to experiment with
dangerous drugs on the lower animals in or
der 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 yiv-sect dogs in the
District OF Columbia, and the senate judic-
larry committee held hearings upon the bill
which brought forth q distinguished gath
ering of scientists to defend vivi-section, and
a large number OF churchmen and other per-
sons to assail it. The question was threshed
out with unusual thoroughness.
The English Parliament recently defeated
a similar bill, Of which one of its opponents
said that 1t was a test case mot for the dog
or for the medical profession, but for the
Intelligence OF the house OF commons"
The public has been very largely misled
about vivi-section. The average layman has
very little idea OF It's actual use and value.
He knows that some influential journals
have ridiculed 1t, and that Mark Twain
wrote q book against 1t. He knows also
that doctors generally regard it as an abb
sOlute necessity to their science. And tina.
Is about all he knows.
The contentious Of those who oppose vivi-
section are that man has no right to infIict
pain on the lower animals; that medical
science has not accomplished anything by
the practice OF vivi-section, and that there
.
The medical men agree that the unneces-
sary tnflictiOn 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 main
tain that to prevent human suffering by
the sacrifice OF lower animals Is supremely
justifiable. In fact, they go further and
say that even human lives should be sacri-
feed in experiment IL much greater numbers
OF human lives can thereby be saved. And
n 6n1n foSl IT,
| known case Is that Of the conquest Of yell
low fever, in which several physicians vol
unteered 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 pallagra
or course, the human sacrifice must be
voluntary, while the animal sacrifice in the
nature Of the case, must be involuntary. But
society approves and applauds the sacrifice
or few men to save many. Then why,
ask the physicians, should it decry the sacri-
lice 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 indiret tly
upon experiments with living animals, and
many OF these experiments were upon dogs
Before discussing the part the dog plays
| in medical science, it should be pointed out
! that the making and testing Of all serums
| animals. Sometimes the animal is not seri-
Ously injured, sometimes he dies, and some
! times he undergoes considerable suffering
! But thhe production of smallpox vaccine and
| of the diphtheria anti-tOXin which saves so
many child lives, the incubation against
typhoid fever which made our army in
! France the first in history not decimated by
that disease, the prevention Of horrible death
from hydrophobia when a person has been
! bitten by mad dog, are all dependent 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
a year. These serums and anti-toxins are
made in the bodies of animals by the man.
ufacturers and are tested in the bodies Of
animals at the hygenc laboratory of the
United States public health service here in
Washington. This laboratory uses about
! $4,000 live animals every year. Most Of
| them are mice rats, guinea pigs and rabbits
but some of them are dogs. These $4,000
| live animals which are sacrificed every veal