How powerful medical opinion is, even in the democratic society
of America, a short extract from a letter of the Honorary Secretary of the Pennsylvanian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will sufficiently show :—" After endeavour- ing," says the writer, "to obtain some support from our leading physicans, we prepared a Bill to prevent vivisection for the illustra- tion of what was already known. The Bill was introduced into the Senate [of Pennsylvania] this winter, and referred to a Committee. We had expected that the Committee would, as is usual, take time to deliberate upon the matter, and it was the intention of some of us to have gone to the State Capitol and talked with the different gentle- men composing it. But, most unfortunately, there we're two doc- tors upon the Committee, and they used their influence to have it re- turned to the Senate the next morning with a negative recommenda- tion." The writer adds that the same,society has had a great struggle to prevent the dogs from the City pound being secured by the physiologists for their experiments, and has succeeded in obtain- ing the right to take up the stray dogs and put them to a painless death when they cannot be otherwise disposed of, but that this victory over the physiologists has left the bitterest feelings behind it. Evidently the scientific passion for these investigations is increasing rapidly among the physiologists of all countries ; and whatever the actual extent of the evil in England at present, it is one which needs the most anxious vigilance and the strictest control.
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