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OPINIONS 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 Vivisection and Dissection in Schools 
 
 Selections from Report of 
 
 The American Humane Association, 
 
 Chicago, 1895. 
 

 
 C4 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE REPORT.! 
 
 The American Humane Association, deeply im- 
 pressed by the growing prevalence of vivisection as a 
 method of study in our larger educational institutions, 
 and regarding its introduction into public and private 
 schools as both dangerous and unnecessary, recently 
 sent circulars on this subject to a number of persons, 
 whose opinions it deemed of value, and whose judgment 
 it desired. The report of this inquiry embracing a con- 
 siderable number of letters from all parts of Europe and 
 America, has just been issued. For wider circulation it 
 is thought best to print separately a few of these opin- 
 ions in the present form. 
 
 The questions submitted were in substance, whether 
 experiments involving the infliction of pain or death upon 
 helpless creatures would tend to cultivate or to blunt the 
 natural sensibilities of children assisting thereat ; whether 
 it was advisable to give children a belief in their irre- 
 sponsible power over the lower forms of life, or cause 
 them to be familiar with bloodshed and death ; whether 
 all that is necessary for children to know of physiology 
 could not be taught by other means than experiments 
 upon animals ; and finally, whether in those cases where 
 exposition of vital organs before advanced classes be 
 deemed advisable, it would not be better to make such 
 demonstration and exhibition upon organs obtained from 
 the butcher, of creatures already killed for purposes 
 of food, and not upon animals used as pets and as- 
 sociated with human affection. 
 
 The Association records the fact, that with but few 
 exceptions, the writers agree with its expressed opinions 
 
3 
 
 about such experimentation in our schools, and believe 
 it is not only injurious and uncalled for by necessity, 
 but that it so blunts the natural sensibilities as to 
 operate to the moral detriment and deterioration of the 
 character of the vounff. 
 
 Wm. T. Harris, A. M., LL. D., Co7nmissioner of Edu- 
 cation^ U. S. : 
 
 •• I am glad to learn of some movement against a 
 practice too widely extended, of dissecting animals before 
 the children in the elementar}' schools." 
 Frederick Harrison, Esq., London, England : 
 
 •' I am surprised and shocked to learn that there can 
 exist schools of any kind where young boys and girls are 
 allowed to witness dissection of living animals under any 
 circumstances whatsoever. 
 
 But I should have thought that all persons of decent 
 feeling and of practical experience of the young must be 
 agreed on the depraving effect of accustoming boys and 
 girls to see death inflicted, to witness organic operations, 
 and to find that the ghastly incidents of the surgical and 
 the dissecting table are part of their manuals of education. 
 I can imagine nothing more certain to blunt their 
 sense of humanity, and to surround their intellectual life 
 with degrading association. 
 
 Those who are parents or moral teachers know how 
 difficult it is to extirpate the love of cruelt}^ to which so 
 many children are prone. But for their teachers to 
 familiarize them with cruelty as part of their training, is 
 a strange perversion of the moral sense. 
 
 I care not whether the anaesthetics are adequate, or 
 whether the dissection is of dead animals — /'^M are 
 rei'olting and deeply demoralizing for children. And the 
 
4 
 enormity is increased where the animals dissected are the 
 companions of our daily life. 
 
 Auguste Comte, who was a philosopher as well as a 
 professor of science, taught us that the domestic brutes 
 we train to our service, are in a sense admitted to our 
 humanity. And he would not have the highest moral 
 teachers of the young defile themselves with the dissec- 
 tion even of the dead. He thought this was incompati- 
 ble with the profoundest sense of reverence for human 
 life. 
 
 I write as a parent and teacher of long standing, who 
 has followed courses of philosophy of many eminent men, 
 and who has practical experience of biological experi- 
 ments." 
 From His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, Baltimore . 
 
 "The best interests of children, in my judgment, re- 
 quire that they be not familiarized with the sight of 
 blood, or death inhumanly inflicted. I am inclined to 
 think that sufficient instruction could be imparted by use 
 of illustrations and manikins. " 
 Prof. Geo. W. Atherton, State College, Pa. : 
 
 " It seems to me that the practice of either vivisection 
 or dissection in the presence of children of the usual 
 school age is not only unnecessary, in the grade and 
 amount of instruction that can be given in the public 
 schools, but is altogether injurious and inadmissible. 
 Its advantages at that stage of instruction, seem to me to 
 be very slight, while the disadvantages and injurious 
 results upon the habits of thought and feeling of the 
 pupils seem to me so obvious that every right-thinking 
 person must revolt against it." 
 Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, Pastor of Plymouth Church, 
 
 Brooklyn, Editor of "■ The Outlook," Netv York City : 
 
 " I should think it very clear that not only 
 vivisection but even the dissection of animals carried on 
 
5 
 by or before children of public school age must do a 
 great deal more harm than it can possibly do good." 
 Rev. a, J. Chapin, D. D., Omaha, Nebraska : 
 
 " I believe the business of dissection, and especially 
 of vivisection as practiced in the public schools of all 
 grades, to be wholly unnecessary and wrong, and am glad 
 to use any influence which I may possess against the 
 demoralizing practice." 
 Rev. J. E. G. Welldon, D. D., Head-Master Harrow 
 
 School, E7igland : 
 
 " I should say such experiments will undoubtedly 
 blunt the sensibilities of children." 
 Rev. Frederic E. Dewhurst, Indianapolis : 
 
 " Keep the scalpel out of the hands of children, and 
 give them Wordsworth and John Burroughs to read." 
 Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Nelson, Brooklyn, N. Y. : 
 
 " The result of vivisection before the eyes and minds 
 of immature school children does little more than gratify 
 a morbid and cruel curiosity. It leaves behind a miser- 
 ably small increment of knowledge to compensate for the 
 irreparable injury to those finer instincts and sympathies 
 which are the patent of our nobility as man, and which 
 hft us above the level of that inferior life, so often need- 
 lessly tortured to gratify a simulated passion for know- 
 ledge." 
 
 Rev. James O. S. Huntington, Holy Cross House, West- 
 minster, Maryla7id : 
 
 " History makes it quite clear that such experiments 
 will tend to blunt the sensibilities. Education means 
 not merely crowding facts into a child but making him 
 more kumane.^^ 
 Rev. Charles A. Northrup, Norwich, Conn. : 
 
 " I am heartily in sympathy with the object you are 
 seeking to attain, viz. : A public opinion averse to such 
 methods of instruction." 
 
6 
 
 Nathan Green, LL. 1)., Chancellor Ciiinbcrhi/iii Uni- 
 versity, Tennessee : 
 
 " I am unalterably opposed to the dissection of 
 animals, such as cats, dogs, etc., before children. The 
 whole business of vivisection is of questionable propriety, 
 and this practice before children for the purpose of 
 instruction is simply barbarous." 
 
 Pres. Geo. Williamson Smith, LL. I)., Trinity College^ 
 
 Hartford : 
 
 " The killing of animals by and before children of 
 public school age, under the plea of instruction in 
 physiology, I am persuaded is unnecessary." 
 
 Pres. J. W. Bissell, D. D., Upper loioa University : 
 
 " I am fully in sympathy with your efforts to bring 
 about a reformation in our present methods of teaching 
 by vivisection and dissection." 
 
 Pres. Edward D. E.vion, D. D., LL. D., Beloit College, 
 
 Beloit, Wis.: 
 
 " I fully agree with the American Humane Society as 
 to the needlessness and injurious tendencies of the 
 vivisection and even the dissection of animals by and 
 before children of public school age." 
 
 Prop. A. J. Granger, Newton Ili^h School, Mass. : 
 
 " As a teacher I should make my answer emphatic. 
 There can be no reason for such experiments in our 
 public schools." 
 
 Prof. Alfonse N. Vandaell, Institute of Technology, 
 
 Boston, Mass. : 
 
 " I believe that physiology, properly so called, ought 
 not to find a place in any school below the college grade. 
 The elements of hygiene can and ought to be taught, 
 although under present regulations, the study in my 
 opinion is begun too early." 
 
7 
 George A. Bacon, A. M., of the firm of Allyn ^ Bacon, 
 
 Publishers, Boston, Mass. : 
 
 "To my thinking there is absolutely no excuse for 
 killing animals in order to teach anatomy or physiology 
 in our schools. In the first place the practice in dis- 
 section which pupils get, amounts to nothing, and they 
 are just as likely to come to wrong as to right conclu- 
 sions, from their observation." 
 
 H. H. Freer, Prt?/. Science and Art Teaching and Political 
 Econotny, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa : 
 " It is time to call a halt upon the infliction of pain on 
 animals, or wantonly killing them for the purpose of 
 teaching anatomy, physiology or hygiene to young 
 children. All that children need to know on these sub- 
 jects can be taught without resorting to processes that 
 will blunt the sensibilities, deprave the taste and brutal- 
 ize the whole nature of children. 
 
 The boy murderer, Pomeroy, was 1 believe, from early 
 life accustomed to the scenes of the slaughter house, 
 and his environment no doubt was responsible for his 
 cruel and murderous tendencies." 
 
 John E. Kimball, Zate Supt. Schools, Newton, Mass.: 
 " The practice referred to is unnecessary, painful in 
 the extreme to sensitive natures, cruel and demoralizing. 
 In my experience as Superintendent of Schools, I have 
 heard of instances of fainting and real suffering to 
 susceptible children in connection with this very repre- 
 hensible practice. If there is one phase of culture out- 
 side the usual curriculum in our public schools which 
 should be of constant care it is tb*- habit of uniform 
 kindness to the lower orders of animate creation, and 
 this is not consistent with a practice which must blunt 
 the sensibihties of all, if it does not in some cases tend 
 to develop types -of brutality, which from time to time 
 shock society." 
 
8 
 H. D. Lloyd, Editor of " Chicago Tribune : " 
 
 " Experiments involving infliction of pain or death 
 tend to blunt, and therefore io brutalize children in their 
 human relations. 
 
 I do not live up to the doctrine, but I believe that our 
 physical as well as sympathetic evolution is moving to 
 the point at which we will be as incapable of killing 
 animals for food for the body as for food for the mind." 
 James Jeffrey Roach, Editor " The Pilot,'' Boston, 
 
 Mass. : 
 
 '* I consider the vivisection of animals for the ostensi- 
 ble instruction of children, to be cruel, useless and 
 demoralizing in the extreme, and that everything neces- 
 sary for the teaching of physiology could be as clearly 
 and more humanely taught by the use of illustrations 
 and manikins. 
 
 It is not vitally important that children should know 
 all about their own internal organs ; it is absolutely 
 important that they should be taught mercy, even to the 
 lowest of living things." 
 Rev. Samuel J. Barrows, Editor " The Christiari 
 
 Register,'^ Boston, Mass. : 
 
 " I believe it to be a serious mistake to encourage 
 children to any irresponsible use of their power over the 
 lower forms of life. 
 
 Children should be taught that might is not right, and 
 that the same laws of love, mercy and justice which 
 apply to human beings should be applied to the animal 
 creation so far as possible. 
 
 It seems to me that it is an abuse of the name of 
 education to familiarize children with the infliction upon 
 animals of mortal wounds, etc., under the pretence of 
 imparting scientific knowledge. An animal is not to be 
 treated as a toy, which a child is encouraged to take 
 apart just to see how it is put together. 
 
9 
 The development of the spirit of love, mercy and 
 justice is more important than to turn the school room 
 into a butcher's shop or a dissecting room to gratify an 
 intellectual curiosity. 
 
 Physiology should have its place in school instruction, 
 but quite as important is the subject of ethics, which 
 includes not only our duties to our fellow beings, but 
 also our duties to animals." 
 
 Dr. H. W. Pierson, Editor '■'Medical Advance,'' Chicago, 
 III. : 
 
 " Promiscuous vivisection is uncalled for and serves 
 to gratify the baser elements in our nature, whether it 
 be children or adults, and should be condemned by all. 
 Individuals preparing for the special study of the subject 
 of physiology will not have their finer senses blunted by 
 study of the mechanism of the body in life. To all 
 others this should be denied, by law, if necessary." 
 Richard Howell, Editor ''Bridgeport Herald;' Bridge- 
 port, Conn. : 
 
 " There are those upon whom vivisection will have a 
 horrifying effect, but there are many in whom the prac- 
 tice in public schools will develop an inordinate love to 
 be cruel to dumb animals. 
 
 The plastic mind of the public school pupil is as sensi- 
 tive to an impression as the dry plate of a photographer's 
 outfit, and the impression which vivisection makes upon 
 one of these young minds may develop frightful traits of 
 character." 
 Rev. E. B. Graham, Editor " Midland," Chicago, III. : 
 
 " Children should not be allowed to see game shot by 
 cruel sportsmen, or domestic fowls killed even for food ; 
 and much less should they become famiUar with cruelty 
 in the interests of education." 
 
 Dr. M. L. Holbrook, ^^//^^ '' Herald of Health;' N. Y.: 
 " I do not think the slightest good in practice ever 
 
comes to children from the experiments alluded to. 
 They are unnecessary. Study animals alive acting 
 naturally, and some good can be learned. Studying 
 them in the throes of pain cannot help teach hygiene." 
 
 Clifford W. Barnes, C/iicago, III. : 
 
 " Having studied physiology and hygiene by the use 
 of illustrations and manikins, and having afterwards 
 studied in a medical college and had experiments in 
 vivisection, I can speak with assurance when I say 
 that no child in the public schools needs to resort to 
 experimentation on living creatures in order to obtain a 
 perfectly satisfactory and sufficient knowledge of the 
 essentials of physiology."' 
 
 Miss Alice M. Longfellow, Cambridge: 
 
 " It would seem to me of far greater value to lay 
 stress upon the importance of observing and understand- 
 ing, instead of taking away the essential element of its 
 beauty and interest. It seems to be poor humanity and 
 poor science to think either is served by destruction 
 instead of by preservation." 
 
 Prof. J. H. Allen, Cambridge, Mass.: 
 
 " It is shocking and unpardonable that any- 
 thing approaching or resembling vivisection should be 
 permitted, except in professional schools, and then only 
 under the greatest precautions as to ancesthetics. . 
 For all that can be profitably taught to the ordinary pupil, 
 plates and models are preferable on every account." 
 
 PkoF. Bar, University of Gottinge/i, Germany: 
 
 . . . " I agree fully with the American Humane 
 Association in the opinion, that not only vivisection but 
 even dissection of animals, killed by and before children 
 of public school age will inevitably operate to the moral 
 injury of the young," 
 
Rt. Rev. Thomas A. Starkey, Bishop of Newark : 
 
 " In my judgment it is of the greatest importance that 
 all children, boys especially, be taught carefully and 
 with painstaking, humanity to animals. It is more 
 than important, it is vitally necessary. Children are 
 apt to be thoughtless ; boys are often so to the verge of 
 cruelty. Any exhibition therefore which is deliberately 
 prepared, and with such experiments as you describe, 
 must in my opinion, have the effect of encouraging this 
 native insensibility. We may easily pay too dear for 
 knowledge, and whatever benefits may accrue in the way 
 of added knowledge from such methods of instruction as 
 those you refer to, is dearly purchased by the loss of so 
 great an element in Christian character as humanity, the 
 chivalric feeUng of the strong for the helpless and weak." 
 Rt. Rev. W. C. Doane, LL. D., Bishop of Albany, N. Y. : 
 " I do not beheve the effect upon children of witness- 
 ing experiments upon living animals can possibly be 
 good. It must either shock their sensibilities if they are 
 what they ought to be, or tend to encourage them in 
 cruelty if they have that unnatural strain in them." 
 Rt. Rev. N. S. Rulison, Assistant Bishop Central Penn- 
 sylvania : 
 
 " In my judgment vivisection and the killing of 
 animals by and before children attending the public 
 schools, and also the dissection of animals under similar 
 circumstances are practices which cannot be really 
 necessary, and which most inevitably blunt the sensi- 
 bilities and corrupt the character of the young." 
 Rt. Rev. John Williams, LL. D., Bishop of Connecticut: 
 "Without entering especially into particulars, I am 
 quite ready to say that in my view, any and all vivisection 
 and kilUng of animals before children of public school 
 age, and also their dissection, cannot but be most injurious 
 to such children and ought to be entirely discouraged." 
 
12 
 
 Rr. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, Bishop of Rhode Island: 
 " I was not aware that any such atrocity existed, as 
 
 the introduction of vivisection into our ordinary schools, 
 
 and I think that it ought to be forbidden by law. 
 
 If physiology cannot be taught our children by the 
 
 use of manikins and illustrations, it will be well not to 
 
 teach it at all." 
 
 Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, D. C. L., Rector of Trinity 
 
 Church, New York: 
 
 . . . The system of education of the young appears 
 to need a fundamental reform, and it is perhaps fortunate 
 that fads of this kind should be introduced as rapidly as 
 possible, in order that the need of such a general and 
 rational overhauling in the interests of much abused 
 childhood may become more thoroughly evident to the 
 general view. 
 
 It is not necessary that the average boy or girl should 
 be made an expert in anatomy, physiology or biology. 
 Such studies are only appropriate for those intended for 
 the degrees in surgery and medicine. I feel certain that 
 all that is necessary for the time can be accomplished by 
 models and illustrations and that there can be no need 
 of a display of ether, knives, blood, wounds and death. 
 Upon the whole, I confess to amazement at the infatua- 
 tion of those, whoever they may be, who have introduced, 
 or deem it wise to introduce, such methods into an already 
 overloaded system of education, and I deprecate with all 
 earnestness the mischief likely to ensue from so wide a 
 departure from the principles and modes of sober 
 common sense and useful teaching. 
 
 Copies of this leaflet may be obtained by addressing- Box 315, Providence, 
 R. I. Price 12 cents per dozen, or 94 cents per hundred, postage paid. 
 
 The more complete Repokt of the Association will be sent by mail, 
 postage paid, on receipt of four cents in postage stamps, or a dozen for 40 cents. 
 
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