EXPERIMENT 110. "Application of Bunsen's flame PRODUCED A SHARP
RISE…."
EXPERIMENT 113. "Bunsen's flame applied to the posterior and anterior extremities PRODUCED A MARKED RISE IN PRESSURE…. BUNSEN'S FLAME OVER REGION OF THE HEART PRODUCED A GRADUAL RISE."
EXPERIMENT 131. "Bunsen's flame to the right hind-foot was followed by
A RATHER MARKED RISE IN CENTRAL BLOOD-PRESSURE."
EXPERIMENT 132. "BUNSEN'S FLAME TO THE NOSE CAUSED A GENERAL RISE IN BLOOD-PRESSURE."
In the year 1900 the same vivisector published an account of certain experiments on the respiratory system, 102 in all. We have the usual assurances of anaesthesia, which, of course, can only be regarded as the operator's opinion. Fire is an element of some of these experiments. We are told that "a large blow-flame burner used for glass-blowing supplied a flame that could be adjusted to a very great range of intensity." Of this statemnet one can have no doubt upon reading some of the experiments described. Upon "a healthy little poodle," weighing only ten pounds, with a blood-pressure of 120 millimetres, the following experiment was made:
"The mouth was held wide open, and THE BLOW-FLAME DIRECTED INTO THE
PHARYNX AND RESPIRATORY TRACT. The immediate effect upon the blood-
pressure was A TEMPORARY RISE. Again the flame was applied; THE
BLOOD-PRESSURE ROSE TO 204 MILLIMETRES, CONTINUING AT THIS HIGH RATE
FOR SOME TIME."
Probably this little creature was the pet of some child. From whose door, one day, did it wander, to be snatched up by some thief, sold to a laboratory, and sent to a death like this?
In another experiment a Newfoundland dog "CONTINUOUSLY BREATHED THE FLAME FOR TWELVE MINUTES." In a similar experiment that followed, "the results were practically identical. In this case THE FLAME WAS SO INTENSE AS TO MELT THE ADIPOSE TISSUE AROUND THE TRACHEA." The animal was broiled alive.
During the first year of the twentieth century the same writer presented the public an account of an "Experimental and Clinical Research into Certain Problems," a work containing a considerable number of experiments of a nature similar to those before published. We are again told that in all cases "the animals were anaesthetized, usually by ether, occasionally by chloroform," alone or combined with other substances, although, in a few cases, "CURARE and morphine were used"—neither of which is an anaesthetic. A curious statement seems to imply a confession that all these experiments were not absolutely painless, for the writer says:
"Every precaution was taken to inflict AS LITTLE PAIN OR DISTRESS AS
POSSIBLE."