The lower animals have been permitted to share, more than equally with man, in the blessing of anaesthetic discovery, for by it, many of them have been saved the agonies of painful death, but they have (not) been subjected to painful experiment in the course of discovery…. The instauration of general anaesthesia came from experiments made on man alone. There is no suspicion of any experiment on a lower animal in connection with it…. On the contrary, there is a most notable fact in relation to experiments under chloroform made on lower animals, which suggests that if they had ever been relied on,—chloroform would never have been introduced into practice. Flourens, the eminent French physiologist, tried the effect of chloroform on inferior animals, and in consequence of its powerful and fatal influence on them, put it aside as an anaesthetic. ——————————- There are methods of producing local insensibility to pain which have been tried, and which deserve notice.
In 1862, I made an attempt to carry out local anaesthesia by exhaustion of blood from a part. I noticed that when three round cupping-glasses were applied to the body very close to each other, the clear triangular space left free within the rim of the mouths of the glasses was rendered white, brawny-like and insensible, when the suction of the glasses was complete. This was obviously due to the local abstraction of blood from the part; and I thought, consequently, that if I could exhaust the blood from the extremity of a limb, the exhausted part might be operated upon without pain…. I tried the process on myself, and finding it succeed, the operation of removing the nail of the greta toe, was tried on a patient, quite painlessly, the patient looking on and feeling nothing. But the proceeding was too long and cumbersome to admit of introduction into practice generally, though it indicated an important principle which may in some future day be utilized. In this research, no experiment on a lower animal was resorted to; I was myself the victim in all preliminary experiments. ——————————- The most numerous and extensive efforts for local anaesthesia have been those in which extreme cold has been employed to produce the benumbing effect. The earliest applications of cold originated between two and three hundred years ago in the fencing schools of Naples. A Neapolitan professor of training placed crushed ice in a flash of thin glass, and then applied the chilled glass to the skin, and held it there until the skin was frozen, in order that the cautery could be employed, or other small operations performed without the infliction of pain. The proceeding must have been most successful, and why it became lost is one of the mysteries of scientific research. It did remain lost until our own time…. I invented for the same purpose the ether spray process, in which a benumbing cold was produced by projecting a volatile liquid like ether or amylene, or a stream of compressed gas … on the part to be anaesthetized. These methods have been so widely adopted that I need not enter into any description of them. I have merely to say that they were made without any aid of experiments of a painful kind on the lower animals…. The earliest experiment with ether spray was made on my own arm. ——————————- It is fortunate for me that I have been an eye-witness of the progress made in this department from its practical instauration. I recall the days when operations were performed without the aid either of general or local methods for abolishing pain. I have myself introduced new methods of anaesthesia, generally and locally; I have brought to trial a large number of new anaesthetics. By the invention of the lethal chamber I have had the delightful privilege of removing the taste and pain of death from probably a million of those friends of man, the faithful dogs. I write this not boastfully but truthfully…. Painful experiments have played no indispensible part in the discovery of anaesthesia. ——————————- It is a curious fact that every method of research which is most enduring, most intellectual and most free from moral evil is farthest away from any and every thing that shocks the conscience or raises a doubt as to necessity, in sensitive minds. If mathematics had to be cultivated through experiments on living animals, it would never have succeeded in unfolding the magnificent mysteries of the universe. The same applies to the work of the science of chemistry, of botany, and of physics generally. In my opinion, every man who studies natural things by experiments on living subjects of any species, feels the truth of what I am saying. I know in my own case, that my mind during such experiments has always been in a different state according to the line of experiment. When the experiment has been conducted on dead or inanimate matter, the return obtained from the labour demanded has always been not only satisfacdtory, but pleasant to the mind. On the contrary, when the experiment has been conducted on living or animate matter, the labour, whether affirmative or negative in its results has never, at any point of it been pleasant. The results may, and often have excited curiousity; they may have been important, and they may have opened the way to new inquiry, but they have never been free of anxiety nor of a sense that whatever came from them, THERE WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT RIGHT. I do not believe I am more sentimental than any of my colleagues; yet I never proceeded to any experiment on a living animal, though to the best of my ability doing everything possible to save all pain, without feeling—what I think is the proper expression,—COMPUNCTION. ——————————- In the hands of the teacher, it (vivisection) may be rankly abused; of scientific pursuits, it is the one most liable to error; it suggests no end to itself, but seems to grow by what it feeds on, becoming by repetition and contest more and more extended and multiplied; it is of all pursuits the most disliked by the educated community; it brings its best and most self-sacrificing professors into scorn; and for all such reasons, even if it be occasionally useful, is calculated to lead to what would be esignated intellectual and moral evil. At the same time, let it be understood that I do not include in the criticisms experiments which being devoid of pain, may cause the death even for the service of man. Above all, I could not for a moment object to experiment by a truly competent man for the purpose of inquiry into some great theory that has been leisurely formed, and can be proved or disproved by no other means, as for example, whether an important surgical operation can or cannot be performed for the saving of human suffering or human life. ——————————- There are some simple and painless experiments which may be demonstrated to any set of pupils, although living animals are the subjects of them. The demonstration of the circulation through the web of the frog; the demonstration of the different natural temperatures of the bodies of animals, including man; the influence of various anaesthetic vapours; the collection of the breath of various animals for the purpose of analysis,—these are all free from objection…. In a word, all experiments which are painless and harmless, are, as I assume the most humane would admit, free from any charge of error. But when we come to consider the application of experiment of a severe kind as a means of education of pupils who are making a study of physiological problems, there is a reason for hesitation. In my student days, such an experiment was never dreamed of. The professor of physiology would relate the facts derived from experiment, on which some important theories were founded; he would, for instance, explain what experiments were made by Harvey in order to describe the circulation of the blood, but he would not attempt to repeat those experiments in the lecture-room. He would describe, in his remarks on the functions of the nervous system, the researches of Sir Charles Bell, … but he would never think of repeating Bell's experiment of division of the nerves in the column, alleging forcibly Bell's own objection to its repetition. It was the same on every point. He would relate the theory; relate the pros and cons; relate possibly his own independent inquiries, or what he had seen experimentally performed by other independent investigators; but with that explanation, he would be content. ——————————- When I was teaching physiology as I did teach it in a medical school for many years, I abstained for a long period from the direct experimental method. I found no difficulty, and my classes worked satisfactorily. The students had the credit of becoming good physiologists, and I am sure there was nothing shirked. In the latter part of my time, I followed occasionally the plan of making a few experiments in the way of demonstration; and although these were rendered painless, the innovation was not the success that was expected…. Intellectually, I do not think my classes were assisted, in the main, by the experimental demonstration. I am sure it limited my sphere of usefulness, by leading me, in the limited time at my command, to omit some parts of physiology of a simpler, less controversial, and more useful kind. I am bound to say that, morally, I do not recall the effect as producing all that could be wished…. I gave up experiments in my classes, not from any sentiment, but BECAUSE I GOT ON BETTER WITHOUT THEM. I did not omit the facts derived from experiment, I did not omit the report of my own experimental endeavours; but I omitted repeating, for the mere sake of demonstrating, what seemed to have been proved…. Were I again to deliver a course of physiological lectures to qualified hearers, I should make the experimental demonstrations on living animals as few and far between as was compatible with duty. They would be exceptional of exceptional, and painless from beginning to end. ——————————- I recommend, as the best method of obtaining the great aims of medicine,—sanitation and the prevention of disease,—first, to make medicine the grand master and teacher of universal cleanliness, and to make everyone of the community a disciple and follower of the same law. The minister of medical art should be prepared to devote his life to this simple duty. He needs no higher calling, no nobler vocation, and a world that knew its own interests should sustain him in the task. At present, the rage is for experimentation, although it seems least wanted, for which rage THE SELFISH AND IGNORANT WORLD IS MOST TO BE BLAMED. The world now, as in the days of Naaman the leper, wants to be healed and protected by elaborate processes, when th esimplest and surest remedy is in its own hands.
From a long experience as a teacher of physiology and of public health, I am convinced that a school or university of preventive medicine would fill an important want. It would tend to make every man and woman a sanitarian, and would help to bring the principles of health into every home. It would be of direct and practical utility; it would instil an exalted comprehension of natural laws, of the advantages of following those laws, and of the danger and folly of setting them at ignorant defiance…. The end would be the accomplishment of the great aim, the development of the health of the people; the art of preventive medicine without inflicting pain on any living thing.
APPENDIX VIII
Since the preceding pages were in type, the United States Department of Agriculture has adopted new regulations governing the inspection of meat. The rules ordered to be applicable to meat derived from animals affected by cancer or malignant disease, are as follows (italics not in original):
Regulation II. Disposal of Diseased Carcasses, etc.
SECTION 7.—ANY INDIVIDUAL ORGAN OR PART OF A CARCASS AFFECTED WITH CARCINOMA OR SARCOMA shall be condemned. In case the carcinoma or sarcoma involves any internal organ TO A MARKED EXTENT, or affects the muscles, skeleton, or body lymph glands even primarily, the carcass shall be condemned. In case of metastasis to any other organ or part of a carcass, or if metastasis has not occurred, but there are present secondary changes in the muscles … the carcass shall be condemned.
SECTION 9.—All slight, well-limited abrasions on the tongue and inner surface of the lips and mouth, when without lymph-gland involvement, SHALL BE CAREFULLY EXCISED, leaving only sound, normal tissue WHICH MAY BE PASSED.
ANY ORGAN OR PART of a carcass which … is affected by a TUMOUR, an abscess, or a suppurating sore shall be condemned; and when the lesions are of such character or extent as to affect the whole carcass, the whole carcass shall be condemned.
It will be seen that the criticism suggested (pp. 269-270) concerning the regulations in force for many years past is not annulled or obviated by the new rules. That which formerly was vague is now more clearly and distinctly set forth. The new regulation most carefully condemns for food purposes "ANY INDIVIDUAL ORGAN OR PART" of a carcass affected with carcinoma or sarcoma (cancer), and such condemnation applies to the carcass, if the malignant disease has involved other parts "to a marked extent." The fact that an animal is suffering from cancer does not of itself compel its rejection for human food. The entire rule would seem to have been drawn so as to permit meat affected by cancer to pass inspection as "sound, healthful, wholesome, and fit for human food," provided the inspector in charge can declare that in his judgment the malignant disease had not affected the meat "to a marked extent."