If we may trust the reporter of Nature, the new
physiological laboratory at Berlin has one whole department entirely set apart for " vivisections,"—which, if it be true, must mean that vivi- sections are to be carried on for merely expository purposes, as well as for the sake of those original investigations which, according to the apologists of these practices, are to lead to so much alleviation of the pains of men and animals in the future. We confess to believing that ninety-nine out of every hundred even of these latter vivisections are useless and wicked displays of prurient curiosity ; but the former cleats of vivisections, those of pure exposition, even the most zealous English physio- logists decline to justify. We trust that the great experiment in political vivisection which Prince Bismarck has made with se steady ahand in a neighbouring country, is not already producing its effect in steeling the sufficiently firm nerves of German science to an even harder temper than before.
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