[1] December 30, 1876.

Nor did further experience with the working of the Act appear greatly to disturb this favourable impression. For instance, after the law had been in operation nearly three years, the London Lancet in its issue of July 19, 1879, editorially remarked:

"There is no reason to regret the Act of 1876 which limits vivisection, except on the ground that it places the interests of science at the arbitration of a lay authority…. MEANWHILE, THE ACT WORKS WELL, AND FULFILLS ITS PURPOSE."

There can be no doubt, however, that the law has always been regarded with marked disfavour by the extreme vivisectionists of Great Britain. They had planned, as we can see, to introduce in the United Kingdom the freedom of vivisection which obtained on the Continent. They had failed, and instead of liberty to imitate Be'rnard, Magendie, and Brown-Se'quard, they saw between them and the absolute power they had craved and dreamed of obtaining, the majesty of English law. Among American representatives of the same school—the strenuous opponents of all legal supervision—it has been the fashion on every possible occasion to cast discredit upon this Act. For obvious reasons they have sought to represent it to the American public as having proven a serious detriment to medical science and an obstruction to medical advancement. The idea is absurd. English physicians and surgeons are as well educated and equipped in every respect as are the graduates of American schools. The complete refutation of all such misstatements regarding the effect of the English law will be found elsewhere. The Act is far from being an ideal law—it is capable of amendment in many respects—but it is an evidence of the acceptance by the English people of the principle of State regulation, and of their wish that between the will of the vivisector and the irresponsible and unlimited torment of the victim, there hall be some power capable, if it so desires, of making effective intervention.

CHAPTER IX

THE GREAT PROTESTANT AGAINST VIVISECTION CRUELTY

Among the critics of unlimited vivisection one American name of the present century stands pre-eminently above all others, not only for emphasis of denunciation, for vigour of condemnation, for clear distinctions between right and wrong, but also for the distinguished position which the writer held. Forty years ago in the medical profession of the United States no name stood higher than that of Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, the professor of surgery in Harvard University. To estimate the value of his criticism it is necessary to outline his career.

He was born in Boston, March 11, 1818, his father being Dr. Jacob Bigelow, one of the leading physicians of his day. After completing his medical education in America, young Bigelow went abroad, and spent nearly three years studying in the great hospitals of Paris. It was at a period when the cruel vivisections of Magendie and his contemporaries had become the scandal of civilization, and there can be no doubt that Dr. Bigelow witnessed every phase of vivisection that his sensibilities permitted him to observe.

Returning to Boston in 1844, the young surgeon rapidly attained a prominent position. In January, 1846, before he had completed his twenty-eighth year, he was appointed visiting surgeon of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Here on November 7, 1846, there occurred one of the greatest historic events—the first surgical operation in which insensibility to pain was secured by the inhalation of ether. Dr. Bigelow's enthusiasm for the new discovery was very great, and it has been said that to him "the world was indebted for the introduction of anaesthesia in surgery at the exact time in which it occurred."

Dr. Bigelow was surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1846 to 1886—a period of forty years. He was professor of surgery in Harvard University from 1849 to 1882, or a third of a century. When he resigned the latter position, President Eliot in his annual report referred to him as "a discoverer and inventor of world-wide reputation, a brilliant surgical operator, a natural leader of men." The faculty of Harvard Medical School also spoke of him as one "who had done so much to render this school conspicuous and to make American surgery illustrious throughout the world." This is high praise. Let it be remembered in reading his opinions concerning vivisection.