LICENSED VIVISECTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1
aru,—The evidence taken by the Royal Commission proves (1), that the reports of the cruelties in foreign schools of vivisection were not exaggerated ; (2) that English physiologists have already gone much farther in this direction than was generally known ; and (3) that some interference is necessary to check the extension -of practices which have caused public scandal. The Report of the Commissioners recommends that physiological laboratories should exist only under licence of the Secretary of State, and be under the supervision of an inspector.
Allow me briefly to state reasons why a measure based on this recommendation, without some additional check, would not only not diminish, but would perpetuate and increase the evils complained -of. Licensed places would then be free from the wholesome -check of public opinion, and experimenters would continue their vivisection under legal protection. The existing law admits of prosecution for cruelty to domestic animals, as in the well-known Norwich case. Vivisectors fear such public exposures, and seek the immunity which a new law would give. Again, a scientific or medical inspector would seldom interfere with licensed teachers, whose ideas on the whole subject are widely different from those -of the public, or of the higher members of the medical profession. Sir Thomas Watson, Sir Robert Christison, and others who claim liberty for occasional experiments, strongly condemn the repetition of them, and the needless demonstration of ascertained facts in physiology. The very office of inspector implies a continual -carrying-on of experiments, the vast majority of which must be unnecessary, and therefore cruel and demoralising.
The truth is, that the occasions when recourse may be had to -experiment, rather than to observation, are of the rarest and most exceptional kind. By licensing places, and exempting the opera- tors from liability to prosecution, public opinion may be blinded, 'but the cruelties of the laboratory will not be lessened.
I venture to suggest that in any Bill for licensing vivisection there should be introduced the proviso of the late Dr. Bardaley, of Manchester, a man of high character, as well as professional -eminence. He proposed " that no experiment should be allowed, except under the sanction of the College of Surgeons or Physi- cians, in either of the three kingdoms, the individuals who wish to institute them specifying to these corporations the nature of the experiments, and their supposed advantages, ere they are per- mitted to put them in practice." By this proviso an additional -check would be afforded, and on the medical profession would be thrown the responsibility of the proceedings.—I am, Sir, &c., JAMES MACAULAY, M.D. Edin.
Previous page
