On Monday night, in answer to Dr. Lyon Playfair, the
Home Secretary, Mr. Assheton Cross, stated that it was intended to appoint a small Royal Commission on the subject of Vivi- section, in order that Parliament might have full information before they attempted to legislate on the subject. Whether, however, a Royal Commission will have the means of getting at full "information" is exceedingly questionable. Assuredly it will not, unless the Commission has compulsory powers to obtain evidence and receives its evidence on oath. Even then it -will not be very easy to get adequately at the facts. It is no -easy matter to obtain intelligible evidence on a highly technical subject, from a class of men who differ widely from the public in their views of that subject, and whose own beliefs as to the -amount of pain and torture inflicted are highly hypothetical and very deeply coloured by their prepossessions. You cannot get at the victims of vivisection and question them. And the evidence .of assistants and servants is seldom very intelligent, and often not very trustworthy. The best evidence on the subject is the very frank evidence given in the "Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory," which we reviewed on February 7, 1874, and which has since been so much quoted ; and that is before the world .already. Certainly, without compulsory powers, the Commission will be a total failure.
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