The advocates of the total suppression of vivisection have started
a new journal, the Abolitionist, which contains in its issue of Saturday some extraordinary statements. Its con- ductors affirm that on the Continent the most dangerous and disgusting experiments are made in the hospitals upon human subjects, especially in Germany and Austria, and imply that the callousness which could alone render such offences possible is the natural consequence of allowing the vivisection of animals. There is no doubt in our mind that such experi- ments on hospital patients—who are, of course, not consulted —are crimes ; but the proper deductions are the punishment of the criminals after trial and the severe regulation of Patho- logical inquiry through vivisection: Total prohibition-might end in the extinction of preventive measures, which are as important to the animals as to ourselves. That animals have rights we acknowledge as fully as Mr. Watson, who contributes some, fine lines on the subject to the Abolitionist, but the right of diffusing infection, as, for example, rats are believed to diffuse plague, cannot be one of them. And yet without inoculating rats, how are we to learn the true method of pre- venting rats from catching the disease I
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