An invention was laid before the British Medical Association at
Leeds which may hereafter be found of great importance. Dr. R. W. Richardson has ascertained that a cut inflicted by a circular knife revolving at a speed of 25 revolutions to the second is pain- less. He has constructed a knife on that principle which will eat without inflicting pain, and with which, he says, he can open abscesses, remove carbuncles, or perform any other minor operation without chloroform. He is even inclined to think that the finger of a human subject might be so cut off. The knife was, unfor- tunately, broken in the room before it could be displayed, but Dr. Richardson has tried experiments with it on himself and on a rabbit, and neither he nor the rabbit were conscious of pain. He is ready, he says in a letter to the Times, to repeat the experiments on himself, and seems to think them much more " warrantable " than similar experiments on animals. We do not quite see that. Man is at least as noble an animal as a rabbit, and if the ears of either are to be sliced, the shortest-lived beast is entitled to the preference. The rabbit, to be sure, cannot give a consent ; but if he is not to suffer and not to be injured, his consent may justifiably be taken for granted. He does not consent to be cooked.
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