DOI issue:
February 6, 1875
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16940#0070
WEIGHT FOR AGE.
Lady (to Candidate /or Parlour-Maid's place). “Thirty, are you? That is a little Older than I should have wished-
Young Person. “ P'rhaps, Mm, ’Umiliation o’ Sperit would compinsate, M’m !”
VIVISECTION AND SCIENCE.
A Conversation. Brown (M.R.C.S.) and Jones.
Jones. You saw the report, Doctor, in the papers, of the applica-
j tion made the other day to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
i to Animals, in order to get it to interfere with vivisection, as
j practised in medical schools ? Do you go with it ?
Brown. I believe it dictated by humane feeling.
Jones. What do you think of vivisection ?
Brown. I consider it a way of torturing animals for which there
is much to be said.
Jones,. Indeed ! How would you like it practised on yourself ?
Brown. Not at all. Neither should I like being knocked down
and “pithed,” bled to death, boiled or skinned alive, stuck on a
hook for live-bait, torn and shattered with gunshot, or hunted to
death. And as a man and a surgeon, if I were forced to choose, I
would, at least, rather be tortured for science than for sport. It
might console me a little to think that my pangs would be compen-
sated by some advantage to my fellow-man.
Jones. A philanthropic idea, Doctor. Still is not vivisection very
cruel f
Brown. Not necessarily. What is an operation—say for aneurism
— but vivisection of the human subject? And, but for vivisection,
would there have been any operation for aneurism ? Human suf-
fering,immensely more and worse than all that animals experience
from vivisection, is caused by war. But to object much to war on
that ground is voted sentimental. War, on the whole, is supposed
to benefit the human race. So does vivisection.
Jones. Is that really so ?
Brown. In a measure. As a means of experiment, vivisection
helps to advance operative surgery. Also physiology—though not
so much as many people suppose. It assisted Bell’s great dis-
covery respecting the nerves; but many experimenters are not
Bells any bigger than to be fit for a fool’s cap. Inferences should
be very cautiously drawn from the effect of mutilations of uncertain
precision; for example, those practised on the brain and nervous
system, under disturbing conditions.
Jones. What do you say to this (produces pamphlet) illustration
of practical vivisection from the Handbook of the Physiological
Laboratory ? (Heads) :—
“ Recurrent Sensibility.—This can only be shown in the higher
animals, the cat or dog being best adapted for the purpose. I he method
adopted is :—The arches of one or two vertebrae are carefully sawn through,
or cut through with the bone forceps, and the exposed roots very carefully
freed from the connective tissue surrounding them. If the animal be strong,
and have thoroughly recovered from the chloroform and from the operation,
irritation of the peripheral stump of the anterior root causes not only contraction
in the muscles, but also movements in other parts of the body indicative of
pain. On dividing the mixed trunk the contractions cease, but the general
signs of pain or sensation remain.”
Brown. To a non-professional mind the description appears
cynical. But so would the detail of any surgical operation. How-
ever, I grant you, vivisection should be always as much as may be
mitigated by anaesthetics, and be minimised to the very lowest
possible degree. _ .
Jones. Is that done when it is advertised as part of the surgical
course at the various hospitals. Nor instance (reads)—
“St. Thomas’s Hospital,—Ophthalmic Surgery. Students will perform
the operations on animals’ eyes, and (opportunities permitting) on the dead
subject.”
Brown, Suppose you had to undergo an operation on your eye.
Would you not like to know that the operator had tried his hand on
some living eye before ? And would you have him to begin with a
human eye? Vivisection can only be minimised by being syste-
matically taught. Otherwise, repetition would result from failure,
and torture would be aggravated by bungling. I think the demand,
for some restraint on vivisection just. But how is the law to nx
it—-how to determine to what extent it is, or is not, necessary r It
strikes me that this is a question that would best be left to be
decided by the heads of our profession, who could frame regula-
tions thereon for the guidance of its members which they would,
Lady (to Candidate /or Parlour-Maid's place). “Thirty, are you? That is a little Older than I should have wished-
Young Person. “ P'rhaps, Mm, ’Umiliation o’ Sperit would compinsate, M’m !”
VIVISECTION AND SCIENCE.
A Conversation. Brown (M.R.C.S.) and Jones.
Jones. You saw the report, Doctor, in the papers, of the applica-
j tion made the other day to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
i to Animals, in order to get it to interfere with vivisection, as
j practised in medical schools ? Do you go with it ?
Brown. I believe it dictated by humane feeling.
Jones. What do you think of vivisection ?
Brown. I consider it a way of torturing animals for which there
is much to be said.
Jones,. Indeed ! How would you like it practised on yourself ?
Brown. Not at all. Neither should I like being knocked down
and “pithed,” bled to death, boiled or skinned alive, stuck on a
hook for live-bait, torn and shattered with gunshot, or hunted to
death. And as a man and a surgeon, if I were forced to choose, I
would, at least, rather be tortured for science than for sport. It
might console me a little to think that my pangs would be compen-
sated by some advantage to my fellow-man.
Jones. A philanthropic idea, Doctor. Still is not vivisection very
cruel f
Brown. Not necessarily. What is an operation—say for aneurism
— but vivisection of the human subject? And, but for vivisection,
would there have been any operation for aneurism ? Human suf-
fering,immensely more and worse than all that animals experience
from vivisection, is caused by war. But to object much to war on
that ground is voted sentimental. War, on the whole, is supposed
to benefit the human race. So does vivisection.
Jones. Is that really so ?
Brown. In a measure. As a means of experiment, vivisection
helps to advance operative surgery. Also physiology—though not
so much as many people suppose. It assisted Bell’s great dis-
covery respecting the nerves; but many experimenters are not
Bells any bigger than to be fit for a fool’s cap. Inferences should
be very cautiously drawn from the effect of mutilations of uncertain
precision; for example, those practised on the brain and nervous
system, under disturbing conditions.
Jones. What do you say to this (produces pamphlet) illustration
of practical vivisection from the Handbook of the Physiological
Laboratory ? (Heads) :—
“ Recurrent Sensibility.—This can only be shown in the higher
animals, the cat or dog being best adapted for the purpose. I he method
adopted is :—The arches of one or two vertebrae are carefully sawn through,
or cut through with the bone forceps, and the exposed roots very carefully
freed from the connective tissue surrounding them. If the animal be strong,
and have thoroughly recovered from the chloroform and from the operation,
irritation of the peripheral stump of the anterior root causes not only contraction
in the muscles, but also movements in other parts of the body indicative of
pain. On dividing the mixed trunk the contractions cease, but the general
signs of pain or sensation remain.”
Brown. To a non-professional mind the description appears
cynical. But so would the detail of any surgical operation. How-
ever, I grant you, vivisection should be always as much as may be
mitigated by anaesthetics, and be minimised to the very lowest
possible degree. _ .
Jones. Is that done when it is advertised as part of the surgical
course at the various hospitals. Nor instance (reads)—
“St. Thomas’s Hospital,—Ophthalmic Surgery. Students will perform
the operations on animals’ eyes, and (opportunities permitting) on the dead
subject.”
Brown, Suppose you had to undergo an operation on your eye.
Would you not like to know that the operator had tried his hand on
some living eye before ? And would you have him to begin with a
human eye? Vivisection can only be minimised by being syste-
matically taught. Otherwise, repetition would result from failure,
and torture would be aggravated by bungling. I think the demand,
for some restraint on vivisection just. But how is the law to nx
it—-how to determine to what extent it is, or is not, necessary r It
strikes me that this is a question that would best be left to be
decided by the heads of our profession, who could frame regula-
tions thereon for the guidance of its members which they would,