The Vivisection debate of Wednesday was a rather poor affair,
the Government having come to a compromise with the men of science which took the meaning out of it. The physiologists all through have desired to be allowed to make private experiments in their own houses, to be released from prosecutions not ordered by the Secretary of State, who may be a friend to vivisection, and to have frogs surrendered to their discretion. Finding that the Bill could not be carried unless they agreed not to talk it out, Mr. Cross yielded, with the reserve that the physiologists must be "eminent," and recommended by scientific bodies,—a curiOus proviso, as it is the eminent men who, in their absorption in their inquiries, care least whether animals suffer. There is still a chance, we believe, that the unhappy frogs may be protected, but the benefit of the Bill is now very slight, is in fact confined to the prohibition of vivisection by students or for purposes of demonstration.
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