THE VIVISECTION DEBATE IN THE OXFORD CONVOCATION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " $PECTATOR:1 SIR,—As one of those present in Convocation during the recent debate on the Vivisection question who were not qualified to vote, I should like to say a word in answer to Dean Goulburn'e letter. It is a fact perfectly well known and admitted by all that the opposition to the Bishop of Oxford's speech came, not from the Undergraduates in the gallery, but from one of the M.A.'s (since identified with a prominent London clergyman) in the area of the theatre, who persistently called out " Name ! " when the Bishop attempted to describe an experiment performed in an Italian laboratory. The cries of "Turn him out" from thegallery were directed to this individual, the Undergraduates (the majority of whom, I should say, were decidedly against the proposed grant to the Professor) being most anxious to hear the Bishop. As for the opposition offered to the other speakers, it was so general that it is really unfair to charge only theUndergraduates with obstruction.
I may also remark that it has since transpired that the last speaker, whose allusion to the "two thousand swine" was so much resented, really intended no profanity whatever. He was a "devout Presbyterian," and merely wished to draw a parallel between the slaughter of the swine (who would be cut in thewater before perishing) to save a human life, and modern experiments in vivisection having the same object in view. Hewes certainly indiscreet ; but he had no wish to be profane.—I
am, Sir, B.A. OXON.
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