Mr. Ray Lankester is anxious for any good physiological autho-
rity hostile to the scientific importance of vivisection. We will give him one, which we extract from the Times of Saturday, April 20th, 1867 We have great pleasure," said our contempo- rary, "in publishing the following important protest. We, the Court of Examiners for Scotland of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, desire to express our opinion that the performance of operations on living animals is altogether un- necessary for the purpose of causation.'" We do not quite understand the last word, but it is clear the drift is meant to be in a scientific sense depreciatory of this horrible method. The protest is signed, "James Synm, chairman ; James Dunsmure, M.D., F.R.C.S.E. ; J. Warburton Begbie, M.D. ; John Lawson, President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons," and by five others, the principal veterinary surgeon to the Forces, Mr. William Wilkinson, expressing his complete concurrence in the protest. Valeat quantum. We have never denied that discoveries are sometimes due to this cruel work. But we are quite pre- pared to deny, in the case of the lower animals, as in that of man, that scientific zeal and scientific hope are adequate excuses for the infliction of torture on the innocent and helpless.
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