[1] Pp. 289-290.

All distinctions of this kind the author of "Animal Experimentation" apparently sweeps aside. A writer suggested that upon natives of India who, when bitten by poisonous serpents, almost invariably die, there would be no objection to trying "every variety of antidote that can be discovered." This humane suggestion the author of "Animal Experimentation" holds up as "FLAT-FOOTED ADVOCACY OF HUMAN VIVISECTION!" The absurdity of such pronouncement must be evident to everyone of common sense. We should think very little of any surgeon confronted with the case of a native suffering from a snake-bit, who, finding ordinary remedies of no avail, refused to try "EVERY VARIETY OF ANTIDOTE THAT CAN BE DISCOVERED." This is not the "human vivisection" to which objection is made; for such experimentation is for the personal benefit of the man himself.

Take, for illustration, the experiments made by the author of "Animal Experimentation" and other investigators some years since, upon soldiers in an Army hospital. The author of the pamphlet which first brought these experiments on soldiers before the public, states distinctly that "just so far as the experiments were made upon suffering men IN THE HOPE OF GIVING RELIEF FROM PAIN, and at the same time contributing to medical knowledge, THERE CAN BE NOTHING TO CRITICIZE IN ANY WAY."[2] Surely the experimenters should ask no clearer exculpation from all blame, so far as relates to permissible experimentation on man. The critic, however, suggested that in some cases, the enthusiastic experimenters went beyond this, and quotes from the original article the following descriptions of their work:

"We finally entered upon A DELIBERATE COURSE OF EXPERIMENTS with the intention of ascertaining in what respect … the two drugs in question were antagonistic…. The experiments which we shall now relate were most of them made upon soldiers, who were suffering from painful neuralgic diseases, or from some cause of entailing pain. In some cases, however, CONVALESCENT MEN WERE THE SUBJECTS OF OUR OBSERVATIONS, but in no instance were they allowed to know what agents we used…. SOME WERE MEN IN VERY FAIR HEALTH, suspected of malingering. The patient was kept recumbent some time before and during the observation."

[2] Taber, "Illustrations of Human Vivisection," Chicago, 1906, pp. 13-14.

It is unnecessary to give the full description of these experiments. We are informed of "series of experiments," of "two other sets of experiments," of the "effect on the eye" or "the effect of the two drugs upon the cerebral functions"; the material was abundant. The reviewer of this experimentation says:

"How these experiments will be palliated and excused it is easy to foretell. We shall undoubtedly be told that all this happened some years ago; that the American soldiers, thus used as material suffered no permanent injury from the experiments to which they were subjected; that the investigators were purely disinterested; that the scientific questions involved were of great interest and that results might possibly have been obtained which would have proved of great service to medical science. But even if we grant all this, and accord to these gentlemen the purest of personal motives, can we say that in such defence they touch the chief point at issue in this matter of human vivisection? Here were a number of human beings who, for a brief period, on account of misfortune, were temporarily in their power. WHAT MORAL RIGHT had these medical gentlemen thus to experiment upon the eye, the pulse, the brain of a single soldier of the Republic? … Even granting the utility, who confers upon anyone the moral right to test poisons on his fellow-men?

In his recent work, the author of "Animal Experimentation" refers to these investigations of earlier years, and insists that most of the patients thus operated on "were sorely in need of relief." What, he asks, would his critics have had them do? "Sit idly by, and let these poor fellows suffer torments, because if we tried various drugs we were `experimenting' on human beings?" Is not this a little disingenuous, in view of the very careful distinctions made by his critic concerning the experiments performed for the relief of suffering men? Assuredly, there was no objection to these; it was regarding the "deliberate course of experiments," the "series of experiments" made upon "MEN IN VERY FAIR HEALTH" that criticism was suggested. Were all these experiments upon soldiers in the Army hospital made for the relief of their pains? If so, they undoubtedly deserve our warmest approval. Were any of a purely scientific character, having no regard to the necessities of the individual upon whom they were made? If so, we may leave the question of condemnation or approval to the reader's judgment.

V.

What is the attitude of the author toward cruelty in animal experimentation, or to the secrecy of the laboratory? So far as one can see, there is no admission anywhere that vivisection ever transcends the limits of what is entirely permissible. Except as regards human beings, the word "cruelty" is not found in the index of his work. At one place he tells his readers that "whenever an operation would be painful, an anaesthetic is ALWAYS given";[1] on another page, we read that in modern researches, "ether or other anaesthetics are ALMOST always given."[2] two statements that are slightly incompatible. We are informed that certain American societies have passed resolutions favorable to the "UNRESTRICTED performance" of vivisections by proper persons;[3] but the writer neglects to inform his readers that unrestricted and unregulated experimentation of the kind is not only contrary to the law in England, but that it is condemned there by the leaders of the medical profession. We find it apparently implied—but without positive statement—that there is little or no secrecy in animal experimentation, and that anyone may find admittance to a laboratory at any time.[4] So far as England is concerned, this is untrue; and we do not believe that in America a stranger would be welcomed at any physiological laboratory when experimentation by students was going on, although of course there are times when there would be no trouble in obtaining admittance. It would apparently seem that in the opinion of Dr. Keen, animal experimentation is always practised without cruelty or abuse.