COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE 
 
 HEALTH SCIENCES STANDARD 
 
 I") 
 
 HX64171973 
 QP45 .As7 Memorial. 
 
 RECAP 
 
Columbia ^ntt^em'tp 
 
(JU) ( - I /^ f t.c.^VW>> 
 
 PvIE MORI A L 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Association of American Physicians. 
 
 Tlie Association of American Physicians, assembled in 
 annnal session at Washington, D. C, May 2, 1896, by 
 nnanimons vote and by the appended signatnres of its 
 officers and members, hereby records its most earnest pro- 
 test against such legislation as that proposed by the bill 
 entitled "A bill for the further prevention of cruelty to 
 animals in the District of Columbia" — Senate Bill 1552 — 
 in so far as this legislation embodies measures intended to 
 control and restrict experimentation upon animals con- 
 ducted in the Government laboratories, the medical schools 
 and other institutions of the higher learning in the District 
 of Columbia. In making this protest the Association begs 
 to present to the members of Congress the following con- 
 siderations : 
 
 Experimentation upon animals is an absolutely indis- 
 pensable and the most important method of investigation 
 of the properties of living organisms, and of the influences 
 
which modify these properties. The science and the art 
 of medicine are based upon the knowledge of the structure 
 and the functions of living matter, and consequently in 
 large part upon knowledge which has been obtained by 
 experiments upon animals and which could have been 
 gained in no other way. 
 
 The benefits to mankind of the knowledge thus acquired 
 are of inestimable value. To mention only a few of the 
 results obtained within recent years by animal experimen- 
 tation, attention is called to the discoveries which have 
 revolutionized surgical practice by the introduction of 
 antiseptic methods of treatment, which have rendered in- 
 frequent the occurrence of childbed fever, which have 
 made it possible to prevent the development of hydrophobia 
 after the bite of rabid animals, which have furnished an 
 efficacious method of cure of the otherwise incurable dis- 
 ease, myxcedema, and which, by the antitoxin treatment, 
 have greatly lessened the fatality of diphtheria. By these 
 and similar discoveries derived from experiments upon 
 animals, untold thousands of human lives have been 
 rescued which would otherwise surely have perished. 
 
 The saving of animal life itself and the consequent 
 commercial profits resulting from knowledge gained by 
 experiments upon animals have been enormous. The 
 benefits derived from experiments upon animals largely go 
 to the improvement of the public health and the preven- 
 tion of infectious diseases. Their immediate value is often 
 not recognizable by the individual, unless he has informed 
 himself upon subjects which are in large measxire of a 
 
technical nature and belong to the study of scientific 
 experts. 
 
 It would require a volume to set forth adequately the 
 results, beneficial to mankind and to animals, of knowledge 
 derived from experiments on animals. The assertion of 
 many opponents of vivisection, that knowledge obtained 
 from animal experimentation and which could be obtained 
 in no other way has been of little or no benefit to man- 
 kind, can be referred only to ignorance or to wilful mis- 
 representation. 
 
 Never was there a time in which experimental medicine 
 gave promise of results so important for the welfare of 
 mankind as those which we may reasonably expect in the 
 near future, and never was there so little justification as at 
 present to hamper in any way the work of those engaged 
 in searching by the experimental method for means of 
 preventing and curing disease. 
 
 Obvious as are such beneficial results of animal experi- 
 mentation as those specified, — and many other similar 
 instances might have been cited by way of illustration, — it 
 should be borne in mind that the full significance of the 
 importance and of the results of experimentation upon 
 animals for the biological and the medical sciences can be 
 adequately appreciated only by those who possess special 
 knowledge of these sciences, and that it is only those who 
 are thus informed who can fully realize the injury which 
 would be inflicted upon these sciences and upon medicine 
 by such legislation as that contemplated in this bill. Upon 
 this matter it is the voice of science and of medicine, which 
 is likewise the voice of true philanthropy, which should 
 
be heard and which should control legislative action, and 
 not that of those who, however worthy their impulses, 
 however high their social position, however great their 
 knowledge in other departments, do not possess that 
 special knowledge which renders them competent to judge 
 of the merits of this question. 
 
 The voice of science and of medicine, so far as it receives 
 authoritative utterance, is overwhelmingly opposed to legis- 
 lation of any kind which would take in any measure the 
 direction of experimental medicine and physiology out of 
 the hands of those who on account of their special fitness 
 have been chosen by the authorities of our higher institu- 
 tions of learning and of research to convey instruction and 
 to conduct investigations in these departments. Unneces- 
 sary and offensive in the highest degree would it be by any 
 system of official inspection, such as that proposed in this 
 bill and which might readily be used as a system of out- 
 rageous espionage, or by legislation of any kind, to attempt 
 to dictate or control how, and by whom, and for what 
 purposes, and under what conditions, and upon what 
 animals in the laboratories and the institutions of the higher 
 learning experiments shall be made. The decision as to 
 these matters should be left wholly to those in charge of 
 these institutions, who are the ones most competent to 
 judge of them. 
 
 Those engaged in the Government laboratories, in the 
 medical schools and the universities of this country, in 
 teaching and in investigations which require experimenta- 
 tion upon animals, can be safely intrusted with this function. 
 To say the least, they are not less humane than are those 
 
5 
 
 who advocate legislation to control and restrict animal 
 experimentation in these institutions. The assertion which 
 has been made by anti-vivisectionists, that experimenta- 
 tion on animals brutalizes those who witness and practice 
 it, is an insult, without shadow of foundation, to a class of 
 scientific workers devoted to the investigation of problems 
 of the highest importance to the welfare of mankind. 
 Their efforts are to secure the desired knowledge by in- 
 fliction of the least possible needless pain upon animals 
 used for experimentation, and we do not hesitate to assert 
 that this solicitude to avoid the infliction of unnecessary 
 pain renders them more susceptible than the average man 
 to actual cruelty to animals. 
 
 We have been unable to learn that there has been a 
 single instance in which abuse has been made of the prac- 
 tice of animal experimentation in the Government labora- 
 tories, the medical schools or the universities of the District 
 of Columbia. Any legislation which proposes in any way 
 to control, restrict, or interfere with animal experimenta- 
 tion in these institutions is, therefore, unnecessary, as well 
 as offensive to those who are engaged in the scientific in- 
 vestigations conducted therein. 
 
 If there be any doubt as to the opposition of the great 
 body of scientific men and of physicians to such legislation 
 as that proposed in this bill, we beg that Congress will not 
 take action favorable to this bill or to any similar one 
 until sufficient time has been given for a full expression of 
 opinion from scientific and medical associations through- 
 out this country, for the matter is one not merely of local 
 
6 
 
 interest, but may concern the future progress of the 
 biological and medical sciences, and of preventive and 
 curative medicine throughout this country. 
 
 A. Jacobi, M. D., President^ 
 
 NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Henry Hun, M. D., Secretary^ 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y. 
 
 William W. Johnston, M. D., Treasurer^ x OMcers 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY. 
 
 G. Baumgartkn, M. D., Councillor, 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 
 J. E. Graham, M. D., Councillor, 
 
 TORONTO, CANADA. 
 
 William H. Welch, M. D., ^ 
 
 BALTIMORE, MD. 
 
 William Pepper, M. D., 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA 
 
 Victor C. Vaugn, M. D., 
 
 ANN ARBOR, MICH 
 
 Robert T. Edes, M. D., 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 Theobald Smith, M. D., 
 
 )■ Committee. 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 J 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 This book is due on the date indicated below, or at the 
 expiration of a definite period after the date of borrowing, as 
 provided by the rules of the Library or by special arrange- 
 ment with the Librarian in charge. 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 DATE BORROWED 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C28(i14i)mIOO 
 
 
 
 
I Association of American physicians. 
 
 Memorial . • 
 
 ' -^SONAL RESERVE bH ELF