A subscription list has been opened, we, hear, in France,
for the foundation of a memorial to the great physiologist, Claude Ber- nard, and we observe with regret that the chief English physiolo- gists have formed a committee to aid this object in England. We say we observe this with regret, because Claude Bernard, how- ever great as a physiologist, was quite as great as a vivisector, and one of the most cruelly unscrupulous vivisectors in Europe. One (out of many) of his experiments, one on a wretched dog, tor- tured by the most painful experiments, but paralysed by curari, and after many hours' acute suffering left with its lungs kept in action by the aid of an engine, to which its body was attached, the curari having destroyed its power of breathing but in no degree its sufferings, to linger through the night, —it was found dead when the physiologists returned in the morning,—excited the deepest horror two or three years ago, when published in the Evidence taken by the Royal Commis- sion on Vivisection. What France wants, much more than honourable memorials even of the most humane of physio- logists,—and Claude Barnard was the most unscrupulous,—is more living sympathy with animal suffering. Even its veterinary schools have learned from Claude Bernard, and such as he, the most demoralising lessons ; and we see with the greatest satisfaction that Mr. James Cowie, M.It.C.V.S., has got the support of more than 500 English veterinary surgeons, in his attempt to bring home to the veterinary surgeons of the Continent the utterly useless as well as horrible character of the practices of their veterinary schools,—practices which, but for the infectious ex- ample of Claude Bernard, and physiologists of his stamp, would. never have been tolerated by any class of professional healers.
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