The Syndic of Florence, Signor Peruzzi, received an address a
year or two ago when in this country, from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, urging him to use his influence to put an end to the horrors of the vivisection systematically pursued in Florence. Of course he gave a reply which, in terms at least, was all humanity; but it would not appear, if the Times' correspondents can be trusted, that any effectual impres- sion was made upon him. " An English Resident " at Florence, writing to last Saturday's Times to confirm a telegraphic account sent by the Times' correspondent at Rome, of the painful impression made by the procedure of the Florence autho- rities in regard to vivisection, states that though by the municipal law dogs found without a muzzle should be de- stroyed in as humane and painless a manner as possible, the Syndic, Signor Peruzzi, has issued an express order warranting their consignment to the vivisector's hands ; and that the poor in Florence constantly have their dogs snatched from them for this purpose only,—an old blind woman having recently lost her senses from grief at learning that her dog had perished in that cruel manner. "The dogs are taken in so merciless and tyrannical a manner, that they are seized on the thresholds of their own homes, and even out of the arms of the women who are caressing them." " An English Resident " can see no remedy but an appeal to " public opinion." In England, " public opinion " would probably declare itself by a good riot, in which the windows of the mayor's house and of the physiological laboratory •would hardly be spared,—a remedy of course of a very dangerous kind. Still, it seems certain that " public opinion " is better respected in places where it occasionally breaks out somewhat violently in cltiliance of the letter, though hardly in defiance of the spirit, of the law.
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