INOCULATION AND VIVISECTION.
[TO Tun EDITOR OF THE .SFECTATOIL1 Silt,—Your comments on Mr. A stley's letter last week have put those who advocate the total abolition of Vivisection ou their defence, and in spite of the proverbial rashness of seeking to argue with the master of legions, I must beg of your courtesy to allow me to say a few words in your columns, in attempted vindication of the soundness of our position.
I trust to be excused for questioning the accuracy of your allegation that " experimental inoculations or vaccinations " are likely to prove of such saving use to dumb animals, that interference with such experiments would be against the in- terests of the animals themselves. The hands of the inoculat- ing physiologists are as " empty " as Claude Bernard admitted those of other vivisectors to be. For instance, our real under- standing of the essential nature—not to say a word about the
'1' In a later letter, Lover says that a lialy.friend insists on calling him "the Grocer's Hogg." t The Knight Gsvynne."
St. Patrick's Evo. § Tbis project was never carried oat. cure—of pleurcepneumenia in cattle may be said not merely to be as far off as ever, but after all the " scientific " experi- mentation that has gone on for years at the Brown Institution and elsewhere, we have been brought now to what appears to to be a hopeless condition of confusion and contradiction by these experiments, as any one may see who will re- fer to the most recent paper on epizootic pleuro-pneu- monia, published only a few days ago, and prepared by Dr.. C. S. Roy, under the directions of Dr. Burdon-Sanderson,. " from observations made at the Brown Institution." Vivi- sectors, it is true, in these instances, as in others, like the alche- mists of past days, declare loudly that the " promises " with which alone their mouth is full, are "legitimate" and reason- able, but in the absence of any corresponding measure of accom- plishment, anti-vivisectionists may surely be excused for de- clining to join in the sanguine belief. At any rate, it is diffi- cult to believe that the results of these experiments on animals,. to which you refer, are, or are ever likely to be, of such a promising character, that on their account anti-vivisectionists. ought to give up their demand for total abolition, the wisdom and even necessity of which seem to them maul- feat from other considerations. Nor, I may say, by-the-by,. do I think it can be fairly admitted that the consequences of these inoculations and vaccinations, producing loathsome and miserable diseases, arc so trifling that they may properly be described as being " entirely destitute of anything ap- proaching to torture." As to the present Act, it is certain that no mode of working it by a particular Home Secretary, who. should administer it in the most humane spirit, would do away with the radical objections to it which Anti-Vivisectionists entertain, for any atrocity of vivisection might be perpetrated under the sanction of this law, should another Home Secretary choose to allow it.
May I be allowed to add that, in judging of the magnitude
of the growth to which vivisection may.extend, it is necessary to bear in mind that the "new school" of physiology have in view nothing less than the reconstruction of the whole edifice of practical medicine by means of vivisectional and other experimentation. We need only turn to the works of some of the leading vivisectors, and to the current medical literature of the day, to see this. For carrying out these views, no restricted vivisection would be of any use. The physiologist must be allowed to do as he thinks best, without being hampered by any legislative restriction. This is what the country really has to face, in allowing vivisection to go on; and how it is possible to frame a working Act that shall satisfy the vivisector; and at the same time prevent abuses which the people of this country would not tolerate for a moment, if they knew of their existence, is the knot which many anti- vivisectionists believe can never be untied, but must be cut by the trenchant weapon of total abolition.
It is well it should be understood that the world is not likely to lose any great benefit, if we have our way, as many suppose would be the case. Unfortunately, Art is long and Life is short, and however " legitimate " the " promises " of the vivi- sectors in their pursuit of the impossible may appear to them- selves to be, I would point to Brown-Sdquard's inquiries in one department alone of physiology, as having shown by the inex-
orable logic of facts, how much more practical benefit might result to humanity if the doors of ' the physiological laboratory were closed., and its students wore sent out to seek useful know- ledge in other directions, by means of less faulty methods than those which are common there.—I am, Sir, &c., Tan EDITOR or " THE ANTI-VIVISECTIONIST." 11 Ave Maria Lam, B.O.
[We have examined the pamphlet of Dr. Roy, which our correspondent has been so good as to send us, but we do not find that it gives us any evidence on the subject of inoculation for pleuro-pneumonia.—En. S'pectator.]
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