Is there any parent who would be willing to have his ten-year-old boy subjected to an experiment like this?
Poisoning with Nitrate of Sodium.
"To eighteen adults, fourteen men and four women, we ordered 10 grains of pure nitrate of sodium in an ounce of water, and of these, seventeen declared they were unable to take it…. One man, a burly strong fellow, suffering from a little rheumatism only, said that after taking the first dose, he felt giddy as if he `would go off insensible.' His lips, face, and hands turned blue, and he had to lie down an hour and a half before he dared moved. His heart fluttered, and he suffered from throbbing pains in the head. He was urged to try another dose, but declined on the ground THAT HE HAD A WIFE AND FAMILY…."[1]
[1] The London Lancet, November 3, 1883, p. 767
When this account of hospital experimentation first appeared in the
Lancet, another medical journal made the following comment:
"In publishing, and indeed, in instituting these reckless experiments on the effect of nitrate of sodium on the human subject, Professor Ringer and Dr. Murrill have made a deplorably false move, which the ever watchful opponenets of vivisection will not be slow to profit by…. It is impossible to read the paper in last week's Lancet without distress. Of eighteen adults to whom Drs. Ringer and Murrill administered the drug in 10-grain doses—all but one avowed they would expect to drop down dead if they ever took another dose. One woman fell to the ground, and lay with throbbing head and nausea for three hours; another said it turned her lips quite black, and upset her so that she was afraid that she would never get over it…. One girl vomited for two hours and thought she was dying. All these observations are recorded with an innocent naivete as though the idea that anyone could possibly take exception to them were far from the writers' minds. But whatever credit may be given to Drs. Ringer and Murrill for scientific enthusiasm, it is impossible to acquit them of grave indiscretion. THERE WILL BE A HOWL THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY IF IT COMES OUT that officers of a public charity are in the habit of trying SUCH USELESS AND CRUEL EXPERIMENTS on the patients committed to their care…."[1]
[1] Medical Times and Gazette, November 10, 1883.
"CRUEL AND USELESS EXPERIMENTS ON PATIENTS"—that was the judgment of a medical journal of the day. Any stronger condemnation now is hardly necessary.
What is the judgment of the reader upon investigations of this character? Here we have a physician making use of the bodies of his patients for the testing of poisonous drugs, apparently without the slightest regard for the poor and ignorant fellow-beings who had confidently placed themselves under his care. Can such experimentation as this be termed anything but human vivisection? Once we admit that patients in hospitals have no rights superior to scientific demands, and there is hardly a limit to which such experimentation may not be carried on the poor, the ignorant, the feeble-minded and the defenceless.
III. Experiments involving the Eye