The Royal Commission on Vivisection, promised by the Government last
May, has now been formally appointed by the King. The Commissioners are Lord Selby (Chairman), late Speaker of the House of Commons ; Colonel Lockwood, M.P. ; Sir William S. Church, President of the Royal College of Physicians ; Sir John Manfadyean, Principal and Professor of Comparative Pathology at the Royal Veterinary College ; Sir William Collins, M.P. ; Mr. M. D. Chalmers, Permanent Under- Secretary for the Home Department; Mr. A. J. Ram, K.C. ; Mr. Walter H. Gaskell, M.D., University Lecturer on Physiology at Cambridge ; Mr. James Tomkinson, M.P.; and Mr. George Wilson, M.D. Mr. Clive Bigham will act as secretary to the Commission, and the terms of reference are as follows :— " To inquire into and report upon the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments, whether by vivisection or other- wise; and also to inquire into the law relating to that practice and its administration ; and to report whether any, and if so what, changes are desirable." The law under which vivisection is carried on is that of 1876, "To amend the law relating to cruelty to animals," the main provisions of which relate to the licensing of experimenters by the Home Secretary, the per- formance of experiments in .registered. places, and under certain prescribed conditions, unless a special certificate has been granted by two eminent men of science.
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