NEGA TIVE NO. 93-81 ) 02-7 MICROFILMED 1993 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the ^ "Foundnions of Western Civilization Preservation Project i. ^ ^ A. -» Funded by the WMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEfVIENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted mate^'a' Under certain conditions speciffed in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or other reproduction is not to be used ^or any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." if a user makes a request for or later useb a photocopy or reproduction for purposes m excess of -a ^ use," that user may be liable for copyright in^nngemeni. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment c^ ^np c der would involve violation of the copyright law. Al •* U' ' *; Lcrr LL, ALBFRT J[ M M. M.^M^.^ SECRECY? K Ld/\ \^ KL « [PROVIDENCE i,-V..^. ■<■ I I.?] DA rf"; 1900 Master Negative it COLUMBIA UNIA/ERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT -fJ:f/ii.k'Jt. DIDLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARHFT Original Material as Pilined - Existing Bibliographic Record mmii I : 179,4 Z4 v.l i i f ■•■•'^■■■•'•""•■•^••Npi Loffinc^vell, Albert, 1845-1916. Does Gcienco need secrecy? by Albert Loffing-^ well... with statement concerning vivisection by Prof. \I. T. Porter/ ^3d ed. Pr evidence? 3. Aiaeri- oan hiuiuine association, 1900. Reprinted from the Boston transcript. ANOTHEn copriN MEDICAL LiBfumr VoluDie of pamphlets Restrictions on Use: \ -■SZ^- '.i-Sa I] FILM SIZE: ^3 TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO:_J.(f_. IMA^E PLACEMENT: lA \1N IB IIB DATE FILMED: JxSil^j2 INITIALS .^^f^lTV, HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS. INC WOODI3RIDCH. CT ^ c \ Association for Information and image IManagement 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter irn iiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiilini TTT 5 6 iiilmilmi 7 8 9 immu liiiiliiiiliiiiliii ^M T 10 11 llllllllllllllllll TTT 12 13 14 iilmiliiiiliiiiliiiiliii 15 mm I I I iiU Inches 1.0 ¥' 2.8 y6 ||3.2 ■ 63 S m 1.4 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 I.I 1.25 MflNUFflCTURED TO fillM STflNDflRDS BY fiPPLIED IMfiGE, INC. '4 iio ^ FIFTEENTH THOUSAND Does Science Need Secrecy? BY ALBERT LEFFINGWELL, M. D. WITH STATEMENT CONCERNING VIVISECTION BY PROF. W. T. PORTER, REPRINTED FROM THE " BOSTON TRANSCRIPT." / POINTED FOR TUK AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION. 1900. f JC -•. _ ~^ •• S_^ ^ 'r^~^-^ W.' C * 'S.'^" "^ '^ FIFTEENTH THOUSAND ''. »< f '• --. ?4- Ir Does Science Need Secrecy? •%. 1 -it ■ r-"^ , * - ... «>. -,'■/'■ ' '3 -,V'J ■J' BY ALBERT LEFFINGWELL, M. D. WITH STATEMENT CONCERNING VIVISECTION BY PROF. W. T. PORTER, REPRINTED FROM THE " BOSTON TRANSCRIPT. PRINTED FOR THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION 1900. INTRODUCTION. A third edition of this pamphlet having been called for, bringing its circulation up to fifteen thousand, an opportunity is afforded for a brief introduction. The discerning reader cannot fail to note the only purpose of this essay. Iii no sense is it intended as a discussion of the ethics of vivisection or as a denunciation of cruelty. It is siiTinlv .1 chailenore. It denies that a certain manifesto, put forth by six of tiie leadin^^ vivisectors ot ilarvaru Lni- versity. was, -- what it claimed to be, — " a piain statement of the whole truth/' These eminent scientists, allirmed ul painful vivisections that '' such investigations are rare; none such have been made in Harvard Medical School within our knowledo-e." That assertion was either true or false. To prove its untruth ; to demonstrate beyond question that ts causing some degree of pain, -and occasionally experimen -olonged pain aac be en pe rformed bv some of the verv men who were responsible for that most astoun ti 1 n asse tion, was the principal object of the following pages. The 1 2" m a experiments in question might have been free from any st of cruelty ; they might have been entirely justifiable ; but that was not the point at issue. A deliberate statement was made to the public that //^;/^?/;///// vivisections had been per- formed in the Harva rd ?^Iedical School ; and that statement was fal se. When this challenge of accuracy tirst appeared in the f The Boston Transcript, it was confidently ex- columns o pe cted bv nianv friends of the institution that some expla n- / 4 Does Science Need Secrecy f luse n'n{)Hc:iicu id atioii would speediiy be fortncuin!n_. i[V)m ti puttmr; forth that surprising manifesto, Ikit days and weeks went by without a sign , and ni all the years that have since elapsed, no replv has ever been made. No one of these dis- tinguished scientists iias since come forward, aijain to affirm of his statement that it w^as " ///c zv/wli //v////," or of painful vivisections that '' none such have been made in the Har- vard Medical Schoo within our knowdedge." it is a somewhat significant fact that so far as known, the only allusion to this pamphlet which any one of them has ventured to make, merely serves to illustrate the theory that the habitual practice of vivisection dulls the sense of accu- rate perception and the capacity for stating facts. In notes to a published address delivered in 1896 before the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Dr. Henry P. Bowditch makes a brief reference to the experiments noted on page 19 of this pamphlet. After insisting that certain prolonged electrical stimulation "could not by any possibility have been accompanied by any sensation," he adds : ''Even Dr. Lerfingwel],a writer who is compatively reason- able in his opposition to vivisection, in a recently published pamphlet entitled "Does science need secrecy?" cites these experiments as evidence of cruelty practised' in the Harvard Medical School.'' The reader of these pages will look in vain for any proof of this charge. Where, in this pamphlet, are the experiments of Prof. Bowditch cited '-as evidence of cruelty.?" The Harvard professor of physiology had declared with some of his associates, that "painful vivisections" were rare, and '' no)ie such" had been performed in their laboratories. Was that the truth .^ This is the principal question touched. Professor Bowditch insists that his " stimulation " could not have occasioned anv sensation. What of that .^ To select Does Science Need Secrecy f 5 one part of an experiment and to insist on its painlessness, — ignoring all the rest, — is certainly a very questionable method of deferisc. To take some seventv' animals, chosen especially tor vigor and tenacity of life, so that experiments rnighl "extend over several liours : "' to achiiinister r//;r?;r so that after recovery from tiie aiutsthesia, ( under wdiich the initial cuttinij oneration was made, ) iiie\' would be incapable of the sliirhtest movement ; to make one cut in the throat, and another across the sciatic nerve; to experiment upon some of them for hours, the head immovably fastened in a rabbitdiolder, while others are allowed "to recover from the effect of the ether, and the experiment postponed for some (^lays;" — and then to declare that all these wounds, these severed nerves, these manipulations, these delays for days, this artificial respiration and immovable position occasioned no painful sensations in any of these creatures, — w^as doubtless beyond the audacity even of a professional vivisector directly to assert. To ascribe to an opponent statements tbait he never made, and then to refute them. — leaving wholly un- touched the real issue, the only charge, — this woulc be stranire, were it not in accord watli the methods ot that |)^eudo- science, which to-dav iiesitates at no trick of cunning evasion, if only thereby its practices and principles m:i\- be concealed from the public eye. The following essay does not touch upon all tlie misstate- ments of the Harvard manifesto, and some brief n^tes of interrogation and comment may suggest to the reader tlie value of further incjuiry and further d<)ubt. A I i J. » DOES SLlLNLfc M: I 4_>' X D i: ^ ^ t: L. K h I V " A -EPlY TC professor PORTlk BY ALBERT LEFFINI^WELL, M. 13. Fornic'ri\ liiMiuctur m i'hysiology, Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn. N. ^^ To what extent can scientific authority be implicitly re- ceived as the foundation of belief regarding the subject of Vivisection ? It is certain that for the great majority of men and women, all statements concerning it are wholly beyond the possibility of verification by personal experience. Regarding its extent or its methods, its pain or painlessness, its ''utility to humanity or its liability to abuse, the world bases its judgment, not upon knowledge, but upon faith m the accuracy, the impartiality, the sincerity of the men who, standing within the temple of science, know with certainty the facts. One might suppose that here was the welcome -tunity to demonstrate that science can have nothing to al ; that her symbol is a torch and not a veil ; an that stands oppo conce above all professional preference and all partisan zeai fidelity to accuracy, and the love of absolute truth. Nevertheless, it is my purpose in this paper to question the wisdom of too implicit faith ; to suggest the expediency o f doubt ; and to poin t out whv statements which may have the supp ort of hiirh scien tific authorities, should sometimes be receive d with o;reat caution and careful discrimination. And vet I canno t see the slightest reason why every thine: that concerns a scientific method or purpose should rhe substance of this arti cle was read before ihc A H nanc Association, Minneapolis, September 26, 1S95, an nnual Meeting o! liie American d was printed in the Boston J'ranscript, September 28, 1S95. 8 Does Sciefice Need Secrecy f ^''t DC plainly and accurately set f.^rth. Generally tiiis is the case. If a new telescojie iA unusual power is desireu i)y a university, Weaith is nr.t asked to -ive it in order tiiat wealth may be increased by lunar discoveries. When an astronomical station is established on the Andes, or an expedition fitted out for the \orth Pole, we ail know tiiat science only will be the -ainer — not commerce or art. The one exception to an almost universal rule, the one point where truth is veiled m obscurity for the public eye, is when we come to the vivisection of animals. Everywhere else science seems mindful of her mission, and asks' only that with in- creasing radiance the light may shine. Why should vivisection offer an exception to this ideal ? That it seems impossible to tell the whole truth about it is evident to every person who understands the facts. The London Lancet, for example, recently praised a biography by Prof. Mosso, in which that Italian physiologist — as the Z^;/^^/ remarked, '^wisely'' said, — "It is an error to believe that experiments can be performed on an animal which feels." A few weeks ago Prefessor Mosso sent me a manuscript copy of this same essay, in which the sentence appears in slightly different form : " It is an error to think that one can ex^'peri- ment on animals that have not lost sensation ; the disturbance produced by pain in the organism of the animal is so great that it renders useless any observations." Now here is the utterance of a man of science, trained in the accuracy of the laboratory, occupying one of the foremost positions inliurope as a physiologist, and his words, stamped with the approval of the leading Medical journal of P:ngland, may presently be floating through the American press. How is the average reader to question a statement like this.? Nevertheless,''it is absolutely untrue. One can perform experiments "on an animal which feels ; " they have been done by the thousand by Bernard, Magendie, Mantagazza, Brown-Sequard, and others; I have seen scores of these myself. No more un- scientific sentence was ever written than this statement that one cannot do what is done every day ! What the Italian physiologist might truthfully have written was this; "It is Does Science Need Secrecy ? 9 an error to believe that physiological experiments, requiring the aid of delicate instruments, can be performed upon an anniial which is not made !nca!)a!)le oi nui^^cuiar effort." If he l.ad then gone on to say to wduit extent lie effects this by means of anaesthetics, to what extent i)\' the use of narcotics, and to what extent the poison of curare is administered to paralvze the motor nerves, leaving sensibility l') n.iin un- touched, we miirht have liad a scientific statement (d tact. As it is, we have — v/hat .^ An untruth (lue to ignorance.? • An error due to carelessness .^ I do not know. Perhaps the physiologist was thinking too intently of his own special lines of inquiry to note the significance of his words ; luit what shall we say of a great scientific journal of P2ngland which could quote the untruth as " :c'/Vr/i' " said .^ Is even verbal inaccuracy " wise" where science is concerned .' There was recently given out by Dr. William Townsend I^orter, the assistant professor of physiology in Harvard Medical School at Boston, one of the most astonishing state- ments concerning vivisection that ever appeared in public I)rint. The accuracy of Dr. Porter's statement was vouched for by five other leading professors in the same institution — Drs. Henry P. Bowditch, \\\ T. Councilman, W. ¥. Whit- ney, C. S. Minot and H. C. Ernst ; men whose scientific rep- utation has imparted to their affirmations an immense au- thority throughout the country. They put forth what they asserted was a '' plain statement of the whole truth " con- cerning experiments on living animals. He, perhaps, is a rash man who ventures to question any assertion supported by names like these. But it is the duty of every lover of scientific truth to point out errors wherever he may find them, no matter how shielded by authority or intrenched by public opinion; and I propose, therefore, to make use of this pro- fessional manifesto as an illustration of the fallibility of even the highest scientific expert testimony. I think it can be proven that although this declaration rests on such high au- thority, it is nevertheless permeated with mis-statement and error; that certain assertions have been made without due authority, and certain facts of pith and moment most singu- 10 Does Science Need Secrecy f larly omitted, or most carelessly overlooked. And if tull reliance cannot be ^iven to assertions made bv men of the highest fame, then the whole question is as far as ever from {)ermanent settlement. I. In the first place Professor Porter does not well when he denies (as he seems to do) that the practice of experi- mentation upon livin£i: animals has ever led to abuse. "The cruelties |)racticed by vivisectors are paraded in long lists, with the assurance that they are taken directly from the published wTitings of the vivisectors themselves." Well, is this assurance untrue.'^ "These long-drawn lists of atrocities that never existed,'' — can these be the words of a devotee of scientific truth } What does Professor Porter mean by them ^ What other meaning is possible for the average reader to obtain than that he intended to deny that atrocious experiments were anything but a myth ? " Never existed ^ " W^hy, both in Europe and America, but especially abroad, I have personally seen most awful cruelty inflicted upon living animals, simply for the purpose of illustrating well-known facts or theories that had not the faintest con- ceivable relation to the treatment and cure of disease. No facts of history are capable of more certain verification than the tortures which have marked the vivisections of Magen- die and Bernard, of Bert and Mantagazza, and of a host of their imitators. " It is not to be doubted that inhumanity may be found in persons of very high position as physiol- ogists ; we have seen that it was so in Magendie." This is the language of the report on vivisection by a royal commis- sion, to which is attached the name of Professor Thomas H. Huxley. Says Dr. Eliotson, in his work on Human Phy- siology (p. 448), *' I cannot refrain from expressing my horror at the amount of torture which Dr. Brachet inflicted. I Jiardly think knozvledge is zuorth having at siicJi a purcJiase!' But take American testimony on this point. Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, for many years the professor of surgery in Harvard Medical School, of whom Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has said, that he was "one of the first, if not the first, of Amer- ican sur2:eons," crave the annual address before the Massa- Does Science Need Secrecy ? II chusctts Meciical Society a few \-ears ago. Therein iiC called attention to tiie ''dreadtai sufferings ot dumb animals, the coid-blooded crneities \\o\M more and more practiced under the authority of science ! . . . Watch the students at a vivisection. It is the blood and suffering, not the science that rivets their breathless attention. . . . It is dread- ful to think how many poor animals will be subjected to ex- cruciatins: aironv as one medical college after another be- comes penetrated with the idea that vivisection is a part of modern teaching ; that to hold way with other institutions they, too, must have their vivisector, their mutilated dogs, their chamber of horrors and torture to advertise as a labora- tory." Does anyone imagine that Dr. Bigelow here refers to " atrocities that never existed 1 " The American Academy of Medicine includes within its membership men who are as well informed as any in the medical profession. At the sixteenth annual meeting, held in Washington four years ago. Dr. Theophilus Parvin, one of the professors in Jefferson IMedical College of Phila- delphia, gave the Presidential address. Speaking of physi- ologists, he says that there ars some " who seem, seeking useless knowledge, to be blind to the writhing agony and deaf to the cry of pain of their victims, and who have been £:uiltv of the most damnable cruelties without the denunci- ation by the public that their wickedness deserves and. die- mands ; these criminals are not confined to Germany or France, but may be found i)i our own country. '' Is this the statement of an "agitator.^" President Parvin graduated as a physician some years before Dr. Porter was born, and I fancy that he knows of what he speaks. And that physiological experimenter who, defending the utility of vivisection, forgets or denies the existence of atrocity, may be on dangerous ground. Cases have been known where merciless occupation has induced an atrophy of the sense of pity ; and its first symptom is unconsciousness of cruelty, and blindness to abuse. II. But quite as strange as any assertion in this " plain statement of the whole truth " is the implied sugges- 12 n Does Scioice Xecd Sccircy f tion that abuse is impossible because everything is so openly done ! ''These loud outcries to put an end to the frightful scenes daily enacted within the open doors of the most enlightened institutions of learning,"— surely there is a false impression conveyed by these words which their writer should hasten to correct. " IVit/ini the open doors! " To whom are the doors of the physiological laboratories open ? Why, no feudal castle of the middle ages was ever more rigidly guarded against the entrance of an enemy than physio- logical laboratories are secured against the admission of un- welcome visitors. To some of the largest laboratories in the United States, no physician even, can gain entrance unless personally known. If the Bishop of Massachusetts and the editor of any leading newspaper in the city were to apply for admittance at Professor Porter's laboratorv durin^ a vivisection, would the doors swing open as to welcome guests ? Would they be invited to come again and as often as desired, without previous notification? I commend the experiment. Of course a certain degree of this seclusion is necessary and wise. That which I criticise is the implied denial that any secrecy exists and this reference to "open doors." And if doubt still lingers in the minds of any who read, a conclusive experiment will not be dif^cult to make. Let him but knock at these ''open doors" when vivisection is ijomir on, III. We are informed, too, by these scientific author- ities that by so simple a method as " a scratch on the tail of an etherized mouse" and subsequent treatment, "the priceless discovery was made which has at length banished tetanus from the list of incurable disorders." That is an unscientific statement simply because it is untrue. Tetanus, or lockjaw, was never in "the list of incurable disorders " — if uniform fatality is meant; and it certainly has not been taken out of the list by any "priceless discovery" whatever. Consult Aikin, Wood, Fagge, Gross — consult any medical authority whatever of ten years ago — and you find the recoveries from tetanus averaged at that time from ten to fifty-eight per cent, of those who were attacked. Does Science Need Secrecy ? Now, what mio-htv chansfe has been wrou2;ht bv the " orice- less discovery } " Well, I take up the Londoji Lancet of Aug. 10, 1895, and I find an English physician tracing "all procurable published and unpublished cases of tetanus treated by anti-toxine," and they number just thirty-eight, of which twenty-five were recoveries and thirteen were deaths. I take up the New York Medical Record for Aug. 24, 1895, and I find a correspondent stating that he "can discover in the recent medical literature but six or seven cases in all where anti-toxine or tetanine has been used successfully, and they were all by foreigners." To call that a "priceless discovery," which is not in general use today, which in four years has made no better record than this, and with which the report of hardly a single cure can be found in American medical annals within the last five years, — is that a scientific statement.'* Is it worthy of the reputation of men who allowed it to go forth to the world backed by the eminence of their names 1 IV. "It is asserted," says Professor Porter, "that living animals, without narcotics, helpless under the control of poisons which, it is alleged, destroy the power to move while increasing the power to suffer, are subjected to long, agonizing operations, in the hope of securing some new fact, interesting to the scientific mind, but without practical value." This is one of the most curious and ingenious sentences I have ever read. Its inaccuracy depends on only two words, " without narcotics." No critic of vivisection ever made use of those words in anv such statement ; and I respectfully challenge Professor Porter for reference or quotation. It cannot be given. But, if instead of the words "without narcotics," Professor Porter had written " without anaesthetics," then he would have made a precise, accurate and true statement of what undoubtedly has been charged. Could any reader imagine that such a charge was true, and that it might exactly apply to some operations carried on in the labora- tories of Harvard Medical School ^ " Helpless under the control of poisons which destroy the power to move, while H Docs Science Xced Secrecy f increasing the power to suffer," writes the physiologist, in seeming amazement at the mendacity that could coin such a wicked lie ! Yet that statement is entirely true. The na,me of that poison is curari or woorara ; the orthography is by no means fixed. " Woorari," says Dr. Ott (who has per- sonally made use of it in the physiological laboratory at Harvard Medical School), "- is able to render animals im- movable . . . by a paralysis of the motor nerves, leaving sensory nerves ijitact.'' The properties of this singular poison have been carefully investigated by Claude Bernard, whose work on experimental science may be seen at the Boston Public Library. ''Le Curare," he says, '' detruit le mouvement, en laissant persister la sensibilite " (p. 298) ; *' Curare destroys the power of movement, although sensi- bility persists." Under the influence of this agent the ani- mals upon which the physiologist may be working are " exactly as if solidly fixed to the table, are in truth chained for hours" (p. 310). Does it know what is going on ? *' When a mammal is poisoned by curari, its intelli- gence, sensibility or will power are not affected, but they lose the power of moving " (p. 296). Do they suffer ? Is it true, this statement which Professor Porter tells us is "asserted," but which he does not — except by inuendo — deny, that animals are "helpless under control of poisons which destroy the power to move, while increasing the power to suffer?" Well, Claude Bernard was one of the greatest physiologists of this century, and he shall tell us. Death by curare, he says, although it seems "si calme, et si exempte de douleur, est au contraire, accompagnee des souff ranees, les plus atroces que I'imagination de I'homme puisse concevoir," — sufferings the most atrocious that the imagination of man can conceive I " In that corpse with- out movement and with every appearance of death, sensi- bility and intelligence exist without change. The cadaver that one has before him Iiears and conipreJiends vvJiat goes on about Jii})i, and feels vcJiatever painful impressions zoe may infliety (p. 291) Is an animal ever *■' curari zed'' in the Harvard Medical School ? W^e shall presently see. Does Science Need Secrecy ? 15 V. Throughout the entire manifesto the word " nar- cotics " is constantly used apparently as a synonym for " anaesthetics ;" we read for instance of "a rabbit narco- tized with chloral," a " narcotized dog," etc., but not once of an "anaesthetized " animal. Let us see exactly what these terms indicate. In the physiological laboratory five different substances are largely employed for producing certain effects in ani- mals used for experiment. Of curare I have just spoken. Chloroform and ether are known as "anaesthetics;" that is, agents which, pushed sufficiently far, produce a degree of the most absolute insensibility to pain. But the trouble with these anaesthetics in the laboratory is their liability to cause the sudden death of the animal experimented upon ; and this is often most annoying and inconvenient. The temptation therefore is great to substitute for these anaes- thetics certain "narcotics " which create a degree of torpor, though they do not prevent pain. Opium (or morphia) and chloral are the agents thus used. An animal treated with either may be said to be *' narcotized." But is the creature thus narcotized, sensitive to the pain of cutting, for ex- ample.^ Take opium. Claude Bernard, the great French physiologist, asserts that sensibility exists even though the animal be incapable of movement ; " il sent la douleur, mais il a, pour ainsi dire, perdu I'idee de la defense ; " he feels the pain, but has lost, so to speak, the idea of defending himself. Do surgeons use morphia to prevent the pain of a surgical operation .^ Or take chloral. It is a narcotic ; it tends to produce sleep. Is it an anaesthetic .^ Dr. P'arqu- harson of St. Mary's Hospital says in his " Guide to Thera- peutics " (p. 195) : " Recent observation goes to show \.\\2XcJdoral is in no sense a true ancBsthetic. . . . Chloral having no influence over sensory nerves, has no power, /ev se, of allaying pain." Dr. Wood of Philadelphia seems disposed to think that " in very large doses" chloral will produce insensibility to pain ; but he adds that unless the amount employed be so large as to be almost poisonous, "this anaesthesia is in most cases very trifling." \6 Docs ScuiiCi Xccd Sccrccv ? F'or use in the physiological laboratory, the dose for a rabbit is fifteen grains, or one gramme. What shall we say of most painful experiments upon rabbits, '* lightly chloralizeci " with one-tenth the ordinary dose? Such inves- tigations zucro made by Professor Porter himself, at the Har- vard Medical School, and zvitJiin the last two years. VI. And this brings me to a point upon which I am loth to touch, since it would seem to involve the most posi- tive contradiction of statements made by scientific men of the highest authority. Speaking in the plural number for his five associates, Professor Porter has said of vivisections causing pain, that "such investigations are rare. None sucJi have been jnade i)i the Harvard Medical School zvithiu our knozvledgei" This assertion has been widely copied, and is almost universally believed. The Boston Transcript doubtless echoed the sentiment of the public when it declared in its editorial columns that " the character and standing of the medical men whose names are given as responsible for this explanation to the Boston public forbid any questioning of its statements of facts." What is the value of authority if one may assume to disbelieve in a case like this } Here is the assertion of six scientific teachers. P'or the general public, nothing would seem to remain but unquestioning acceptance, and implicit belief. But a great English thinker has said that doubt is the very foundation of science, since " without doubt, there would be no inquiry, and without inquiry, no knowledge." In the interests of scientific truth, I venture here, to suggest doubt rather than credulity. We have an assertion which is either true or false. I doubt its truth. I affirm that evidence exists that experiments have been made m Harvard Medical School under the following; circumstances : I. Animals have been " curarized'' and in that con- dition vivisected. Curare is not an anaesthetic, but simply prevents the animal from moving, while remaining entirely sensible to [)ain. Does Science Need Sccrecv 17 2. Animals have been ''very lightly narcotized" and in that condition vivisected. There is no evidence that animals ''lightly chloralized " are insensible to pain. 3. In the majority of published accounts of experi- ments, there is no mention whatever of anaesthetics being used. In a few instances only, there is reference to the ad- ministration of ether before the preliminary cutting, often followed later by use of curare, 4. The majority of these published investigations, so far as I have been able to discover, relate to curious ques- tions in physiology, and have no perceptible relation to the treatment or cure of human ailments. P^or proof of these statements I refer to the published accounts of various experimenters themselves, concerning their own investigations. Most of them may be found in somewhat rare volumes entitled, "Collected Papers, Physiological Laboratory of Harvard Medical School.". I. Dr. Oit ox the Action of Lobelixa. "The number of my experiments was six, and all were made on rabbits. . . . Into the left jugular had been bound a canula, through which the poison was injected toward the heart. (Exp. i.) As the injection of the poison caused struggling. . . . / used curare to paralyze the motor nerves. (Exp. II.) Rabbit, curarized, vagus irritated. (This experiment lasted thirty minutes.) P^-om another series, we may quote the Exp. VHP Dog ; vagi and sym- pathetics cut ; artificial respiration, etc. "The above experiments were made in Professor Bow- ditch's laboratory at Harvard Medical School." There is no mention of anaesthetics. 2. Dr. Ott ox the Action of Thebain. "In all cases of poisoning by thebain, the functions of the sensorv nerves remain unimpared till death, as convulsions are al- ways excited by touch, up to that period." (p. 5.) " I have made use of the beautiful method of Brown-Sequard in cut- ting of the action of the poison on the lower segment of the spine," etc. "The experiments on the circulation were iS Docs Science Need Secrecy f twent\'-six in number and were nuicle on rabbits. . Artiticial respiration was kept up, . . . Cin-air was used." Dr. Ott makes no mention of an:estheties. ''It is well-known," says Dr. Ott, "that the irritation of a sensorv nerve eauses an excitation of tlie vaso-motor centre, which is indexed by a rise of pressure. The follow- ing experiment was made : Lud wig's gimlet electrodes were screwed into the atlas and occiputal bone (the skull of a rabbit) for direct irritation ; vagi cut ; curare ; sciatic nerve prepared ; vaso-motor centre irritated through a sensorv nerve three seconds ; directlv irritated for eleven seconds." The entire experiment lasted twenty-five minutes; the pressure rose from 150 to 186 and 19S. Dr. Ott adds : "As indirect irritation always produces a rise of pressure, tJie scjisory ncivcs and tJic conductors of tJicir impressions arc not paralyzed'' (p. 12). Will some one asseit that this was a " painless " experiment ? Where was it done ? "The above experiments were made in the physiological laboratory of Professor Bowditch at the Harvard Medical School." 3. Dr. Walton ox the Epiglottis. Case IX. "Dog; epiglottis excised ; watched six days ; coughed at almost every attempt to eat or drink. Case X. Large dog; epi- glottis excised ; observed twenty-one days ; choked in swal- lowing liquids and solids at every trial." "The experi- ments were performed in the laboratory of Harvard Medical School." A dog, strangling in all attempts to swallow^ food for a period of three weeks can hardly be said to undergo "a painless experiment." 4. Dr. Hooper's Experiments. "The following ex- periment was made in order to ascertain whether an upward movement of the cricoid cartilage was necessarily associated with increased capacity of the larynx." Small dog ; cura- rized ; artificial respiration ; pharynx plugged ; a cord tied around the head and jaw in front of the ears to compress the cotton and the passages leading upward. Trachia divided ; a tubulated cork secured in upper end. "It may be ques- tioned certainly how far an experiment of this kind can be applied tc< the living human larynx, or with what logical jus- Docs Science Need Secrecy f 19 ^M tice we can draw conclusion^ from it." "The experiments recorded in this pajicr were performed in tiie physiological laboratory of Harvard Medical Scliool." Of anotiier >eries of ninet}'-four experiments upon nine different do^s, it is stated that thev were etherized *' durini;- the earlv Dart of the operation." If one desires to see the picture of a dog "thoroughly etherized or chloralized," fastened immovaL)iV, its throat cut, and its larynx dissected out and tied up with a string — an experiment from the physiological laboratory of Harvard Medical School — let him consult one of Dr. Hooper's papers. 5. Vaso-motor Experiments upon Frogs, by Dr. Ellis. " All the frogs were f//n?;7':r.'/. . . . The sciatic nerve laid bare and cut in the upper part of the thigh." Dr. Ellis tells us that " many frogs were used; " that "different frogs vary greatly in their susceptibility to different forms of electrical irritation ; " that " each animal is a law^ unto itself ; " that " the individual peculiarities of different frogs and the varying conditions to which they are subjected add perplex- ing elements to the problem ; " that " very delicate apparatus was employed;" that in some instances a "curious result was obtained by striking the abdomen rapidly for a short time, causing the force of the heart-beats to much dimin- ish ; " that sometimes the little creature's heart becomes " enormously swollen with blood, as shown by the great rise in the lever ; " that shocks were "given once everv second "' in certain cases, and tiiat " very beautiful records cari be taken." No doubt ; no doubt. All this may be interesting to the physiologist ; but what practical results were obtained .^ " W^e cannot believe," says the Harvard manifesto, "that such inquiries are ever taken without . . . the conviction that the benefit to humanitv vvill far outwei2:h whatever suf- fering they may cause to the animals." These are beautiful words ! Let Dr. Ellis state the results of his experi- ments in his own way : " The results of our experiments point to the existence of a vaso-dilator as well as a vaso- constrictor mechanism in tJie frog !'' That is all. The "benefit to humanity" was about as much as would come from the discoverv of a silver mine in the moon. 20 Does Science Need Secrecy ? 6. Dr. Bowditch's ExPERniEXT^ ox the \\\so-^roTnR Xerve>. "After some preliminary experiments on other animals, it was ciecicled to use cats in this research, since adult cats vary less than dojj;s in size, and are much more vigorous and tenacious of life than rabbits or other animals usually employed in physiological laboratories. The latter point is tuic of considerable importance in experinieiits ex- toidiii;^ over seveial Jiours. The animals were ciirari.:ed and kept alive by aititicial respiration, while the pherpheric end of the divided sciatic nerve wxas stimulated by induction shocks, varying in intensity and frecjuency. . . . The experiments were so prolonged that it seemed important to :^ive to the air thrown throucrh the trachial canula into the lungs a temperature as near as possible to air respired through the natural channel. . . . '' The cat to be experi- mented upon was first etherized by being placed in a bell- glass with a sponge saturated with ether, and then secured, *' the head being held in an ordinary Czermak's rabbit- holder. The sciatic nerve was then divided. In some cases the cat was allowed to recover from the effect of the ether, and the experiment postponed some days ; in others, a half- per-cent solution of curare was put into circulation while the animal was still etherized." (The effect of the curare would be to render the animal motionless, after recovery from the ether; it has no other use.) In all, there were 909 observations made upon " about seventy cats."* In one ex- periment "a tetanic stimulation was applied for fifteen min- utes to the sciatic nerve. The result was a constriction steadilv maintained durin5>: the continuance of the irritation." If there were any results for ''benefit of humanity" in these investigations, they are not recorded. These experiments were made at Harvard Medical School ; and I submit that they were by no means " painless." * In the Bo, the Dean ot Harvard Metlical ^cliool was reporteii as dcnyinir that ''at- were used for vivi^ecti'in, ami .is .itliriniiis^' that although connected with t'ne >chooI since his Lrraiiuution he liad '■ never seen or heard of a cat being in the building." It is indeed ^-t^ange that the t'.une of Dr. Bowditch's researches upon these '■ seventy cats " did not even reach hi.> associate in the same building. Docs Science Need Secrecy ? 21 OX A ERVES. These uic iaij^Tatory of Harvard riie animals were kci-t under the a 1 )'"''' 7. Dk. Bowditch's Experiments were made iijion c. Medical School." intluence ot a dose of a///??;r just strong enough to })revent muscular contractions ; while artihcial respiration was maintained, and the sciatic nerve constantly subiectcfl to stimulation sufiiciently intense to produce in unpoisoned animals, a tetanic contraction of the muscles. In tills wav it was found that stimulation of a nerve lasting from one and a half to four hours (the muscle being prevented fiT)m contracting by curare) did not exhaust the nerve." The foregoing quotation is from an address given before the American Association for Advancement of Science, August, 1886 — nine years ago. If any great "benefit to human- ity" has resulted from, them, it has not yet been made |nib- lic. Were these experiments "painless .^ " 8. Dr. Ernst's Researches into Raiues. In the "American Journal of Medical Sciences" for April, 1887, there appears an account of certain investigations into the nature of rabies and hydrophobia, made by Dr. Harold C. Ernst of the Harvard Medical School. Some thirtv- two rabbits were inoculated Vvdth rabies, and all of them died of this terrible disease. Without touching upon the question of utility in this particular instance, I submit that bv his own account of these investi2:ations, the\' were b\- no means " painless." 9. Experiments oe Proe. Porter on tiii: Simxal Cord. In the "Journal of Physiology" for April 6, 1895, ai)pears a long and elaborate article on the " Path of the Respiratory Impulses," by Professor William Townsend Porter, of the Laboratory of Physiology in the Harvard Medical School, the author of the preceding manifesto. Taken in conjunction with his assertion regarding painful vivisections that "nonesuch have been made in Harvard Medical School within our knowledge," this paper would seem to offer a very curious and significant illustration of scientific forgetfulness. The object of Professor Porter's experiments was the confirmation of a purely physiological 22 Docs belt lie c Xctd Stcrccy ?' hypothesis : one which had no reference whatever to the cure or treatment of human ills. His researches embraced at least sixty-eight experiments, and full details of fifteen are 2:iven in this essav. In seven of these fifteen experi- ments — all involving most painful mutilations — light doses of morphia or chloral were administered instead of anaesthetics ; in one experiment the dose is not given, and in another there is no mention of any " narcotic " of any kind. Even when ether was given, it was not as a rule used throughout the experiment. Some examples will be of interest ; the italics are mine. '* I have separated the cord from the bulb in eight rab- bits and six dogs, all fully grown. . . . Artificial respir- ation was kept up a long time. . . . The animals were all very UgJitly narcotized.'' Exp. I. Dec. 19, 1893. ''The fourth ventricle was laid bare in a large, lightly cJiloralizcd rabbit, and the floor of the left side of the medium line burned away with small hot glass beads. Respiration continued on both sides in spite of repeated cauterizations." Exp. II. Dec. 15, 1893. "Most of the left side of the floor of the left ventricle of a rabbit, UgJitly cJtlorali-j.ed, (not over 0.1 2;.), was burned away." {Tliis was one-tent Jl the usual dose of cJiloral.) Exp. XXIII. Feb. 27, 1894. Dog narcotized with morphia. Cervical cord exposed its entire length ; severed at the sixth cervical vertebra, and the posterior roots of the cervical nerves cut. (An exceedingly painful experi- ment.) Exp. LXVI. Nov. 20, 1894. Rabbit, ''lightly Jiarcot- izcd \s\\.\\ ether." Left phrenic nerve "was seized near the first rib and torn out of the chest." . . . " I have made such experiments on thirteen rabbits and one dog, and the result has ahoays been the same^ A beautiful encrravine drives the respiratory curve of this rabbit, "the left phrenic nerve of which had been torn out. . . . ''The stars denote struggling !' Does Scicjice Need Secrecy f 23 ExD. LI. ALiv ;, 1804. ''At 10. J :> a middle-sized dog received 0.2 g. mor[)hia. Half an hour later, the lett half of the spinal cord was severed. . . . Animal being loosed, showed a paralysis on the left side. . . . At 4.30 the dog was bound again and the abdomen opened." Why was the dog "bound again .^ " No mention of "nar- cotic" or anaesthetic during further steps of the experi- ment. Exp. XXV. Mar. 3, 1894. Dog; given 0.15 grammes morphia sul[)hate : tracheotomized, spinal cord severed at sixth cervical vertebra ; artificial respiration. Exp. XLLX. May i, 1894. "At 10 a. m. the leftside of the spinal cord of a rabbit, narcotized with ether, was cut. . . . At 4 p. M., 5>3 hours after, breathing was bilateral. ... On opening the abdomen . . . dia- phragm was once more exposed and cut in two pieces." . . . (No mention of anaesthetic or narcotic during latter half of experiment, " 5)2 hours later.") Exp. LI I. May 4, 1894. Spinal cord of rabbit nar- cotized with ether, cut on left side. . . . Seven hours later he was in good condition and kicked vigorously as he was agaiji put on the board. The abdomen opened in the median line . . . phrenic nerve was now cut, etc." There is no mention of narcotic or anaesthetic during the latter part of the operation, "seven hours later" when the rabbit, kicking vigorously, " was again put on the board," to have its abdomen opened. Exp. LVI. May 14, 1894. Rabbit, etherized and trache- otomized. Spinal cord cut; artificial respiration; "The narcotic was stopped. On turning the rabbit and opening the abdomen," etc. Why was not the abdomen opened before "the narcotic was stopped V Exp. LXI. Nov. 8, 1S94. The right half of the spinal cord of a full-grown rabbit was severed . . . the phrenic nerve cut . . . artificial respiration, etc." There is no mention whatever of either narcotic or ancesthetic being used in this experiment. 24 Does Science Need Secrecy ? "Other experiments couhJ be added, but the\' seem unncc- es>arv," savs Professor Porter. W'c ni^ree vvitli him. " »■■■ o There are few laboratories in Europe better equipped for vivisection than the scene of ail these ex[)eriments. In one of his works, Dr. Ott pays a tribute to the inventive genius of Prof. Henry P. Bov/ditch of Harvard Medical Schoob who, it seems, has contrived a new device for holding: immov- ably the head of an animal to be vivisected. "It consists of a fork-shaped iron instrument, the points of the fork united by an iron bar . . . which is passed behind the canine's (teeth) and b6und fast by a strong cord which is fastened over the jaws. When the iron rod is fastened to the prongs, the handle is inserted into the screw-sliding points of the upright rod of a Bernard holder," in which device certain straps prevent the dog " from retracting his nose." But how can a dog retract his nose if insensible? Why should he wish to retract his nose if he is suffering nothing.^ ''I sometimes fear," said Dr. Theophilus Parvin in his address before the American Academy of Medicine, '' that this an^-esthesia is frequently nominal rather than real ; else why so many ingenious contrivances for confining the animal during operations, contrivances that are not made use of in surgical operations U[)on liuman beings.^" These were Boston vivisections. They were not done thousands of miles away in some distant luiropean laboratory, but here at home. Should they have been left in the quiet secrecy of physiological literature.^ Then assuredly their existence ought not to have been so explicitly denied. What judgment are we entitled to pass upon this mani- festo.^ Was it, indeed, wdiat it claimed to be — ''a plain statement of the whole truth ^ " No. A "statement of the whole truth" would not have carefully mentioned "a scratch of the tail of an etherized mouse," and made no reference to other investigations of infinitely greater import carried on in their own laboratory. A statement of the whole truth would not have spoken of *Mong-drawn lists of atrocities that never existed " — deny- ing in one sweeping sentence some facts as certain as any in Does Science Need Secrecy f 25 histnrv. A staiemciit of tlie vvhole truth would not have referred to " narcotxs " as tiuiugli liicy were identical with *' an.rsthetics ; '" It woukl not iiave iett hitkleii the use and purpose of curare : it would not have rcierred to "open doors." when there are no open doors; it would not have proclaimed to the public as a "priceless discovery" \or the cure of tenanus, an agent of which not five cases of success- ful employment in this country can be found in inedical literature. And above all, a plain statement of the whole truth would never have declared that no painful viviscctir^n had been made in Harvard Medical School "within our knowledge," in the face of the evidence 1 have given in this paper. I am not an anti-vivisectionist, for I believe in the prac- tice, when it is rigidly guarded against all abuses, limited to useful ends, and subject to public criticism and the super- vision of the law. But I cannot believe that science ever advances by equivocation or gains by secrecy. If. m the opinion of scientific experts, certain phases of vivisection must be kept from the world's judgment and criticism by evasion and suppression of truth, then I fear the time may come when society will questioii the expediency of ah such methods, from higher considerations than those tiiat rdlect man's relations to the animal world. For science can exist without more vivisection ; but there nre some things without whicli society itself cannot exist. Many readers of t lie preceding pages iiiay zois/i lo J: lU'ic pre- cisely icJiat the Plarv'ird professors affirmed. Tlieir )nauiftSto is therefore reprinted in full. It will be of advantage to ccui- pare it zvith the views of a man far more eminent in the medi- cal profession than any of them, and for many years connected with the same Harvard Medical School. An extract from the address delivered before the Massachusetts Medical Soci- ety by Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, late Professor of Surgery in that institution is tJierefore added. (From the Boston Evening Transcript. July 13^ 1^95-) CONCERNING VIVISECTION. BY WILLIAM TOWNSEND PORTER, M- D., Ass't F'rofessnr < .f Phvsiolnyv. Harvard Medical Schoul. rTin loiinwiNc, statement is made ai vnv. suggestion of I)r IL P. nowDnvH. Dr. W. T. Cunv ilman. Dk. W. F. WnrrxEV. Dk. C. S. MiNOT AND Dr. li. C KrNM- i>ROFESSOKs IN THE HaRX AKH MeDU A!. SCIK.OL, IN ANsWER Tn MANY KE^^IESTS FnK INEoR^E^TION WITH KECARD TO EXREREMENT ATiON UN LIVING ANEMALS.] Readers of the daily prints are aware that a few misinformed individuals are making a persistent effort to bring al)oiit a popular agitation against the experimentation on living animals. Ihe newspaper letters and other communications put forth by these persons dispute the necessity of vivisection, arurming that the knowledge secured by this means is not essential to the progress of biologv, and therefore without substantial value for medicine, a deparnuent of general biology on which the public welfare and the happiness and prosperity of every citizen depend. It is charged that experimental studies of the functions ot Uving animals have no purpose >ave the gratihcation ot an igimble ambition, or the satisfaction of an idle and vicious curiosity.' It is asserted that living animals, rc7/// m iayni^ ih, b.oad and deep founda- tion, nn uhich alone a rational medicine can rest are wantin- in ^^='^'''^'" humanity, and that the medical profession, whose work It i> to lessen tile >uiierin- in the world, looks with indilTerence ...n useless and truly revdtin- cruelties J^^u- bcpre its i^cry evcs.^ It ]s true tliat the evident exaggeration of these charges will aiunc discredit them with many who have no special knou^edge of ^^''' P^'^^^^-^'^''^^ ^^ hercely attacked, and wlio therefore caimot percive that ///:' K,:apnus of tncsc a-iiators arc -arblcd facts. doKniri'-Iit perversions, an J nus/caJn^^ cAccr/^ts from professional writini^s bevond the comprehension of the untrained. It is true that the P^*^^^'^' "^^'^^^ ^>^^' ^'^'^y be persuaded that teachers in medicine ''■''■y '-^^ mercy toward, dumb animals than men of other callings. ^^"^ >'^^ '^^^^^ reiterated charges of cruelty, t/icsc /am; //sts af at^a- citir< that ncccr existed, these loud outcries to put an end to the frig/itfut scenes daily enacted 7aithin the aj^cu dajrs of the most en- lightened seats of learning. al).urd though thev be, do positive harm. 'JIk- least of the evil that they publicly 'attack the char- acter of investigators and teachers in the medical profession ; the greatest, that they seek to destroy the freedom of learning, and to make impossible that patient search for fundamental'^ruths which has raised medicines from the slough of empiricism to the level of an applied science. It is the duty of medical men to meet these mischievous attacks by a 1 i.aix statkmext of the WHOI.K TRflli. Experiments on living animals mav be divided into three classes. In the tirst class may be placed those experiments in which the animal is narcotized before the operation is be-un and IS killed while still insensible to pain. This class includc^s almost all vivisections in physiology, /. ,., almost all experiments which determine directly the functions of living organs, and almost all pharmacological experiments, those which determine the action of remedies on living organs. An example is the cuttin- of the pneumogastric nerve in the rabbit, fully narcotized wit^li choral in order that the action of this nerve upon the respiration maybe studied. •' P^,nh*'^■^^''''''"'' '" '^"' ^^^'''' '''^ "°' '" '*'^ original. They are herein employed not for emphases, but merely to indicate certain affirmations and sui^gestions which are .nc. or untrue, and to which the especial attention of the reader^ directed ""'' The second class consists of experiments in which the ope- ration is made during fun unconsciousness ami the animal then allowed to recover. The follnwino; illustrations will m.ike plain the pur[)ose of such work, In a narcotized dog an opening is made tlirough the abdominal walls into tlie stomach and a short silver tube inserted. The narcotic is stopped. In a fe^'- days the wound heals completely. The pain of the wound is usually so slight that even the appetite of the dog i. nut altected. A>ry exceptionally the wound takes an unfavorable course. In such cases, the dog, if seen to l)e suffering, is killed. This opening into the stomach enables the })hysiologist to determine with much accuracy the digestibility of foods, the nature and the amount of absorption from the stomach, the length of time that food remains ill this organ, the effect of remedies upon its functions, and manv other matters of the first importance. A second illustration is found in the experiments of the pathologist. A narc(;tized rab- l)it is inoculated with the virus of hy(lroi)hol)ia and the .vmpt^)ms of the disease thus induced are carefully noted. d'he knovded2:e thus secured enables the pathologist to decide whether a dog which has been killed after biting several persons in a parox\-srii of supposed madness was really rabid. Iftlie dog was mad indeed, the inoculation of an animal with a small portion of the do^'s spinal cord brings on the previously determined characteristic symptoms of the disease. The fact of rabies is thus made cer- tain, and there is still time, so slowb- does the rabies develo]) \\\ the human species, to save the lives of the bitten persons b\- in- oculation with the attenuated virus. Vet another illustr:U.inn. The bacteriologist ;;/^?XY'jr a scratcli in tin: tail of an etherized nic'use^ touches the scratch with a wire covered with the germs of tetanus (lockjaw), and learns the course of the disease in this animal. He then endeavors, by the injection of various substances, to arrest the fatal march of the disease. It was in this way that the price- less discoi'cry loas ?7iade udiicJi has at length Ininis/ied tetanus from the list of incurable disorders. The third class of vivisections is that in which no narcotic is given. Many operations require no aUcTsthetic because they inilict little or no pain. An example is the injection of diphtheria toxine into horses, in order that the serum of their blood may be used to destroy the diphtheria bacillus in the very tissues of the sick. i V J'- Dofs Snnict- Xc-tu/ Sccircv'^ Oiher operations of this cla.s .h cause pain. Painful vivisections, ^vhen made at all. are made for the sake of determining- functions that are temporarily su^pended l)y narcotics.' Here triuh is -ained at the expense of sulYerin- because there is no other way. ^ Such invesiigatcaic arc rare. Xvic sudi hare been made i,i the' Harvarf Medical Schnoli^'if hi n our hnoiuledgc. We cannot ])elieve that such inquiries are ever undertaken /;/ any uurcrsi/y without tlie most careful consideration of their probable value and the conviction that the benetit to humanit}' wdl far outweigh whatever suUering they may cau^e to tiie animals emploved. _/^ ^^ asserted that vivisection is nut necessary. This we deny. Vivisection is the unavoidable consequence of two incontn.A-ert- ibie propositions ; the l^rst. that there can l)e no adequate knowl- edge of the whole without adequate knowledge of the parts which compose the whule : the second, tlnit the functions of the conq)lex organs which compose the higher x ertebrate. cannot be clearlv made out by the study 01 dead organs or bv the observation r^f the non-vivisected animah It would be easier to create the sci- ence of strategy from observations on dead soldiers than to repro- duce the present knowledge Concerning the circulation of the blood irom a study uf the dead blood-^■essels. Whole series of phenomena are hidden alike from the student of lifeless tissues and from the outside investigator who confines himself to man or t!ie non-vivisected animal. Thus, the work done bv everv organ ^'' ^^'^ ^''"^y ^^^l^^-nds on tile quantity uf blood ^^ith which i't is siip- plied, and this depends, other things being equal, on the pressure ^' ^^^^ ^'''f- ^^-'^-^ -^^ ^'terie^, Xo means exist ot measuring ^*^'-;^'^^^"->' ^^''-' pJt^^sure of the blood in men or non- vivisected ani- "''''■ * '''^>' "-'^^^^^ ^'^^ measuring apparatus i. (:.)nnected directlv v.ith the bL,od-vesseIsof the animal can any certain knowledge C'.ncerning one ot the most important factors in the life of the organism be secured. :50 the fundamental problem of the distri- bution of the blood can l.e soi\-ed only by vivisection. Instances of the practical vahie o'f the knowledge gained by vivisection are ahnost numberless, ddie discoverv of the restrain- ing action of the pneumogastric nerve upon the heart disclosed a previously unsuspected attribute of nervous tissue. fhrc7.' a search- ing light far iufa the yiaom that still enshrouds the higher functions or the brain, and left ar mcdacealde unrh cu pracHcal medicine. i his discover}- was solely the fruit of vivisection. It is now but Docs Scicnct Xccd Secrecy? 31 twenty-live years since the physiologist Hitzig stimulateo certain areas on the exposed brain of a narcotized dog and observed tiiai each stimulus caused a jiarticular group of muscles to contract. This experiment h:^?, giver a mighty impulse X.o the diagnosis of cerebral disease, has opened the almost superstitii)usiy dreaded brain to the surgeon's knife, and has rescued many who once were thought beyond the reach of art.* It is not to be disputed that the certain cure of any sick man depends on the accurate determination -f his disease,'- It cannot be denied that a clear conception of the normal functions of a jvirt is the necessary basis for the recognition of the aljuormaiii} of which constitutes disease. It follows that the cure of disease must be founded on the knowledge oX tiie normal (unctions ol liie bodv. It has been pointed out that tliis knr)\\ledge has been jiained and must continue to be gained largelv from experiments on living animals. Vivisection is therefore an iiuiiS|)ensable aid to tlie practice of medicine and tlie progress of medical science, and an indispensable agent m the ]-)reser\ ation of the public health, Crueitv is the intentional iniiiction of unnecessary paiu.'^ By far the irreater number of \-i\ isections cause no real suffering, be- cause the animals employed are made insensible to i^aia. The occasional vivisections in wiiich narcotics are not used because thev temporarily sus|)end the functions to be studied are not cruel. The pain thev miiict is necessary to the better knowledge c-f the tunctions of the body and necessary therefore to the better preservation of the lives of men and of domestic animals. Count- less multitudes t)f animals are slaughtered daily, without narcotics, to furnish fc^od. This is imt thought cruel. Other animals are mercilessly hunted down because their furs keep oiT the cold. Even this is not thought cruel. Yet the professional scientist, highly educated, carefully trained, laboring with small material reward for the advancement ot learning and public good, is held up to * The reader hb.ould not fail to note ihe intentional ir.aefinileness of the fine-sounding- phrases cuij. loved in this paragraph : "given a mighty impulse;" "threw a searching liiil.t I'.ir into tlie gloom, '" and '' lelt an ineffaceable mark on practical medicine." These phrases have no meaning except to suggest achievements in practical medicine that can- not be more clearly defined because they have no existence. In an address made before The New York State Medical Society, Jan. 29, 1S96, Dr. M. Alien -tarr i^ive the statis- tics oi operations lor brain tanior -o f.ir as recorded up to Unit yearn He pointed out Ihatonlv about one case in lourteen is open to operation; and with the final result of operations for the cure of epilepsy, about which we Ireard so much a short time ago, he is," exceedingly disappointed." I 32 Does Science Need Secrecy ? public condemnation, because, in the pursuit of those truths which underlie die successful fig^ht against disease, iic iimU it necesbdiy to study the fiitictioiiN of unconscious animals and verv, verv rarelv to perform 'Ujerations in v.iiicii sutterimr cannot whoilv be avoided. Tile st.uutc> of the Commonwcaltii prescribe the penalties to be inflicted on tiio^e found p:iiilL\' (jf crueit\- to animals, and on those wiio seek to tlisturl) tlieir fellou-citizens in tlie pursuit of tiieir iawfiil occupations. Tlie phy.^iologist and the pathologist take tlieir .^tand within tiie common law, ready at anv time to sub- mil to tlie impartial verdict of competent judges the method by whicli they endeavor to teach and to advance tlie science and the art or medicine. Boston. 12, 1S95. i RuM ADDREr?:^ U\ ••MElJicWL LDL'CATION IN AMERICA, " READ BEFORE The Massachusetts .Medical Society, BY Prof. HEXRY J. BIGEl.OW, l\. D., (PR<)FESSOR OF SURGER\']X HARX'ARI) I XU'ERblT V.) '• H(A\- few facts of immediate considerable \'alue to our race ha\-e uf late \ears been extorted from the dreadful sulterings ot limnb .minials. i^ie coId-blooJcd cniclties Jiow Diore and more prac- ticed under tfic auf/iorify 'if science .' * The iiorrors of Vivisection have supplanted the solemnitv, tlie thrilling fascination, of the old unetherized operation upon tile liuman sufferer. Tlieir recorded phenomena, stored away by tlie physiological inquisitor on dusty shelves, are mostly of as little I're^ent value to man as the knowledge of a new comet or of a Tunuostate of Zirconiuaii : 'lerliai'S to be confuted next vear ; Italics in this paper .are not in original, Does Science Need Secrecy f 33 perhaps to remain as fixed truth of immediate value, — contempti- ble, C07npared with the price paid for it in agony and torture. For every inch cut by one of these experimenters in the Quiverinn- tissues of tho helpless dog or rabbit or Cninea-pig, let him insert .i iatioet one eigluli of an inch into liis (,)wn >kin, and for everv inch more he cuts let hum advan.ce the knicet another eighth of an inch, and whene\er he seizes, uuh ragged f(;rceps. a nerve or s]>inal marrow, the seat of all that is concentriited and exqui^- ite in agony, or literany tears out ncfccs t'X f/ieir r(h>fsc^ !et timi cut only one-eighth of an inch further, and he may have some faint suggestion of the atrocity he is perpetrating when tlie (iuineaq-jig shrieks, the poor dog \ells. the iiol:)le horse groans and strains ^ the heartless vivisector |)erliaps resenting the struggle which annoys him. Mv heart sickens as I recall the spectacle at Alfort. in former limes, of a wretched horse, one of manv hundreds, broken \\\'A\ au'e and disease resulting from lifelong and honest devotion, to •man's service, bound u.pon the Hoor. his skin scored witli .1 knife like a gridiron, his eyes and ears cut out. ins teeth pulled, his arteries laid l)are, his nerves exposed rmd {)inched and -e\ered. lii:5 hoofs pared to the quick, aiici every conceivable and fiendish torture inflicted upon liinn while he groaned and gasped, iiib lite carefullv preser\'ed under lili^^ continued and he;li:-li torment from earlv morning until afterncKiu to-r tiie j)urpose, as was avowed, of familiarizing the pupil vvith tiie rnotious of the animal. This was surgical vivisection on a little larger scale, aud transcends but little the scenes in ,1 piivsiological laboratory, T have heaiA it said that ' somel)ody must do this.' I say. it is needless. .NAbody should do it. W'atcli the students at a \ i\usecti(.,)n. It is tiie blood and suffering, not the science, that rnrets tlieir breatliless attention. If hospital service makes young students less tender of suffering, vivisection deadens their humanity and begets indif- ference to it. In experiments ujion the ner\ous system of the li\dng animal. whose sensibility must be kept alive, not benumbed by the Ijiessed influence of ana-sthesia, a prodigal waste of suffering results trom the difhculty of assigning to each experiment its precise and proximate effect. The rumpled feathers of a pigeon de|)ri\-ed of * Vox illu-tr itions of this phase of vivisection, see experiments of Prof. Porter of the Harvard Medic. tl School, referred to in tliis pamphlet, at foot of page 21. 3 \ J-t Does Science Need Secrecy f his ccrebelluiii iiia\ indicate not bu inucii a specific action of ihe cerebellum on the skin, as the mnvQ probable fact that the poor l)ird reels sick. i he rotatory phenomena, once considered so curious a rr->uU ■■.>[ the renvnci! oi a ct_a'ebral lolje. were afterward suspected lo proceed from the strnggles of the victim with his remaining undamaged and uni^dsied side. Who can say whether a (bamea-pig, tlie pinciiing of wiiose carefully sensitized neck tlirows him into convulsion^, attains this blessed momentary respite of insensibihty b\- an unexplained special machinery of the ner\-ou^ currents, or a sen^.^ibility too extjuisitely acute for animal endurance .' Better that I or my friend should die than protract existence through accumulated years of torture upon animals, i.'/iiit bv the most accom{)lished and successful philosopher, and if then a single experiment, thougli cruel, Would forever settle it. we might reluctantly admit that it v-'^s iur>titied. Hut the in>tinLt> of our common humanitv indi"-- nantly remonstrate against the testing of clumsy or unimportant Iiyp otlieses !)y {vrocligal ex|)erimentat!on, or making the torture of animals an exhibition to enlarge a Medical School, or for the en- tertainment of students, not one m hft\- of wliom can turn it to anv pr-ritabie account. 'Idle limit of sucl] pliysiological experi- ment, 111 it5 utiiiOst latitude, sliould be to e-tablish truth in the hand^ ^a a skiiiriii experimenter, with tiie greatest econom\- of suitering, and not to demonstrate it to ignorant classes and encour- age tiieni to repeat it. i lie reaction whicli follows every excess 7c77/ /;; //;//'' M/r indignantiy up^n t/us. (ditii tiieii it is dreadful to think how many poor animals will be scd)jected to excruciating agony as one INredicai College after another becomes penetrated with the idea that vivisection is a part of uKjdern teaching, and that, to hold way with other institutions, the\\ too, must have their vivisector, their mutilated dogs, their (;uinea-|)igs, their rabbits, their chamber of torture and of horrors, to ad\ertise as a laboratorv." — From address i'efore J/assae/iuse//^ Medical Society, June 7, i^j i, ' Does Science Need Secrecy f 35 Notes and Comments. ^ p. 2S. There is a class of experiments, sometimes involving extreme aiii.1 prolonged pain, all mention ot u-liich this '- statement of the whole truth " carefuHv a\ olds. Ai tiie meeting of the British Medical Association held in August, iS9<). \\\v j>rcsi(ient ca tlie Section ta State Metiicine, Dr. George Wilson, LL. i).. made aHiiNioti to the efforts of vivisectors to eonceal trie Outh le fo!lo\siiig -cadiing '* J hioldly say theia' siiouUi he s perinuauation, . . , some [lause m tiic"-e ruthle 1 have PiOl alh'ec! m\>t_'!f h) iht. lines of ex- \'\\ i-ct tion- ists, hut 1 (i((//se mx profe^si on of mislead i /i l;' t lie puhh'r its to. the cruelties a)id lioj-yors z-jliicli iUt pcrpet rati (t o/i anijinil iffo. When it is stated ttiai tlie actual pain iruohed in these experniit'nt> i> commonly of the most trilling descripticjn. ///<■/* is : skin i'lto fiic peritoneum^ into tlie I ri.nnii ))! . loiiter tiie duia niaterj into 'lie pleiirnl oiizitw into the veifiSi eyes, or other orga7is — -■//(/ all -liesc methods arc ruthlessly prac- ticed — tin i: is loii^^^'diiiixju-out agouy. The aninuil so intiocently ope- rated o/> 1)1 a V It, roe to live days^ zveeks^ or months, ivith no anaesthetic to assuage iti^ sufferings, and ?iothing but death to relievei''' 2 p. 29. ' i he ceiiaiPi cure of any sick man " has most assuredly never been gained through vivisection. For, aside from a few simple disorders, chietly cutaneous, there are no "certain cures" known to medical science Sir Tolin 1 orhes, formerly Physician to the Qiieen, asserts : " In the vast majority oi ciiseases the medical art. e\en wiien exerting its powers most successfullv, cati haidly be said to cure diseases at all." (" Nature and An in the Qww or Disease." See ai&t) "Modern Inciuiries." b\ i>\ Jacob ihgelow. fonnerlv a lu-ofessor in ITar\-ard l'''ni\ ersiiy.J ^ p. 29. Cruel! \ i^ the itUentional iaihiction ot un justifiable pain. To accept the \ivisectors' definition i- to oj^er-i the door to e\a'rv itu'atriv that tl!e\ declare "necessary '' Notiiin^ ea!i be necessary that is ethically ■iinjustiliahle Literature Coiieernmg \ ixisectiori. Mrtlirai O-.u'iiions cotiCesninL: A'ivisection, Is \ i\-i^celioii Painful ? - - - - Scientific CIiic:inerv : Does it Pay - - eonfessions of a \'ivi>cclor, - . - Facts about Mviseclion. . . - - State Supervision of \'ivisection, Dr. Tlieopliilus Parvin on \'iviseclion, Plnsioloff \' in our Public Schools. A Dangerous Ideal, . - - - - The Bi utalization of ehildhood, Shall Science Do Murder ? _ . . Opinion^ concerning Vivisection in Schools, Abstract of Rej^oit on \'i vi-^ection in Anieiic.. ■' Does Science Need Secrecy? 'vi5tli Thi-usand;, " Report of American lUnnane Associatioti on Vi\ isection in Anierici. . - - Ilunian Vivisection, ----- /vninials' Rights and ^'i\isection in ATiierica, (Fifth Tb.ousand , ----- '>er dozen copies, $ .06 a .oS li •35 a .oS t fc .oS >( .oS .; .oS (< .06 i( (( u u (( (( (I :)cr copy, i ; u (; 4- i ( .1 2 .12 .20 .60 .oS .oS .40 These prices include postage. A single copy of all the above I>iun|)hiets5 etc.; •.'viil be sent, po^iage paid, to any address for eighty- five cents. Address : Humane Literature Committee, P. O. Box 215, Providence, li I HuMAiNE LITER. -«♦^- The American Humane Association was organized in 1877, ^^^ the purpose of promoting unity and concert of action among the American societies, having for their object the prevention of Cruelty to children and animals. For twentj-three jears it has endeavored to carry out this purpose, principally through deliberative conventions, held annually in various cities throughout the Union, and in Canada. At the meeting of the Association in Washington, D. C., in December, 189S, it was decided somewhat to enlarge its field of activity', and to make the Association more of an Educational force in awakening public sentiment to the need of various reforms. One of the methods through which the American Humane Associa- tion will aim to accomplish this purpose is b}' the systematic distribution of Humane Literature. So far as funds permit, it proposes to promul- gate the ideals of humane conduct in every direction where necessity exists. Among the subjects regarding which it would seek more thoroughly to arouse public sentiment are the abuses connected with the treatment of domestic animals; the transportation of cattle and their slaughter for food ; the extermination of birds for the demands of fashion; the cruelties of "sport;" the abuses of vivisection when carried on, as now without State supervision or control; the cruelties pertaining to child-life, and above all, the great and growing abomin- ation of Human Vivisection, in the subjection of children and others to scientific experimentation. The extent to which this work can be carried out will depend upon the assistance received. All interested are urgently solicited to con- tribute towards this object. Every dollar so contributed will be devoted wholly to the publication and dissemination of Humane Literature. Should subscribers desire their contributions to be especially devoted to any one of the above lines of this humanitarian work, their prefer- ences will be observed. Francis H. Rowley, D. D., Treas. Humane Literature Committee, No. 163 Winter Street, I^ail River^ Mass.