The hearing of a summons against some Norwich surgeons for
assisting a French surgeon, M. Magnan, in some extremely need- less and cruel experiments on dogs, during the Norwich session of the British Association last August, took place on Wednesday and Thursday before the Norwich Bench of Magistrates, and it was shown on high medical authority—Sir William Fergusson's and Mr. 'Puffnell'a—that the experiments were useless as well as cruel, that they only showed exactly what was known before as to the effect of injecting alcohol and absinthe into the arteries of dogs, and what could be of no use for the medical treatment of human patients. The evidence given as to the suffering of the dogs under these useless tortures was very painful, and indeed the whole scene,—though it is satisfactory to know that some spectators of it were indignant, and that some of them actually interfered to prevent the cruelty practised,—must have been a very piteous one. Ultimately the summons was dis- missed (though without granting costs) on the ground that there was not sufficient proof of the co-operation of the Norwich surgeons implicated. Mr. Cohen and the Society for the Preven- tion of Cruelty to Animals have nevertheless gained a great point by the summons. It seems clear that if M. Magnin, who did the dirty work, had answered to the summons, he would have been punished ; and in any case, the strong feeling expressed, even by eminent members of the medical profession, against the superflu- ous cruelty of the process, will have its influence. Is it not enough to study the effects of intoxication by alcohol and absinthe on those who are silly and wicked enough to subject themselves voluntarily to its influence, without inflicting on innocent creatures who have no taste for the vice a great deal more than the normal suffering which the vice entails? Medical science disgraces itself by its fondness for dabbling in these purposeless cruelties.
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