MISS COBBE AND " THE NINE CIRCLES."
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—There is one, and I believe only one, serious error in Miss Cobbe's book, and even that is perfectly pardonable if the method of its composition is understood. The plan of the work arranges all kinds of experiments upon animals under Nine Classes, the first of which is "Mangling," the second "Artificial Disease," the third "Poisoning," and soon. Under "Mangling," the object is to show how the various organs— brain, spinal cord, liver, &c.—are injured under circumstances which involve more or less pain during, or after, the operations in question. The very first experiments noticed are those which concern the destruction of the brains of rabbits, some of these involving the gravest injuries, and lasting in their entirety for many days. The second class, that of the " Creation of Disease," has to do with such experiments as those of inducing rabies according to the method of M. Pasteur. The third deals with poisoning with drugs, the venom of snakes, alcohol, &c. In some of these experiments their collector, Mrs. Rhodes, thought proper to mention the use of some kind of anaesthetic, or nar- cotic, in the initial operation ; in others, she did not mention it, because it could have had but the smallest possible effect on the sum-total of the animals' sufferings, such, for example, as that of injecting putrid water into the veins of dogs to produce fever. (p. 67.) The body of the book was sent to me in proofs when completed, for my revision ; after this was done, Miss Cobbe writes a preface, in which, without my knowledge, or, indeed, without that of Mrs. Rhodes, so far as I understand, she says that : " So far as it has been possible, the use, or absence, of anaesthetics has been noticed in regard to all the experiments cited in this book." Be it remembered that Miss Cobbe had positively seen none of the original authorities for these experiments; she judged from the internal evidence of Mrs. Rhodes' work, that she had indicated anaesthetics when they were used, and had omitted them when not specified. Had I known that Miss Cobbe had any intention of indicating any- thing of the sort I should have demanded sufficient time for the necessary research. Miss Cobbe must be acquitted of any desire to mislead ; and for my own part, and that of Mrs. Rhodes, in this matter, the worst which can be charged against us is the failure to perfectly understand the nature of the assistance we were required to render. As for the confusion of dissections of corpses with vivisection, to which you refer, I am able to assure you, in the experimenter's own words, that "during every experiment the animal has been deeply under the influence of an anaesthetic. Antiseptic precautions were vigorously maintained throughout all the operations." I have never known such a description applied previously to any corpse, and if Mr. Horsley fell into the error of accusing Miss Cobbe of omitting the reference to anaesthetics in this case, surely I may be forgiven for concluding with him that it referred to living beings; but I am quite willing to accept the experimenter's assurance that the experiments were performed on corpses, although the circumstances must have been some- what phenomenal. I am now hard at work revising, correct- ing, and enlarging the "Nine Circles," and shall spare no pains to clear it of errors and unintentional misrepresentations, though I doubt if, with all my care, I shall be able to render it entirely satisfactory to the Vivisectors.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
