One of the most illustrious philosphers which America has produced was Dr. William James, professor of psychology in Harvard University. In that institution, thirty-five years ago, he was assistant-professor of physiology, and knew exactly what was done. Harvard made him a professor of philosophy, and then of psychology; Princeton and Oxford and Harvard conferred upon him their highest honours. He lectured both at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh. He wa s a member of various scienfitic societies in France, in Germany, in Denmark, and England. If any man was entitled by experience and study to speak with some authority concerning vivisection, it was William James of Harvard University.
He knew to what extent the practice of vivisection was carried on. Calling upon me one day in Cambridge, we compared views, and although he told me of certain experiments he proposed to make the next day, he was emphatic in his denunciation of the atrocities which over and over again were repeated in physiological laboratories throughout the land. The men who raised their voices against all reform were—he said—neither candid, nor honest, nor sincere.
Somewhat later, with some knowledge of his views, he was asked to hold an honorary relation to the Vivisection Reform Society. His reply was so characteristic of the man that it is here given:
"Dear Sir,
"I am made of too unorganized stuff to be a Vice-President of the Vivisection Reform Society, and, moreover, I make it a principle not to let my name appear anywhere where I am not doing practical work. But I am glad to send you, in answer to your request, a statement of my views, which you are at liberty to publish if you see fit.
"Much of the talk against vivisection is, in my opinion, as idiotic as the talk in defence of it is uncandid; but your Society (if I rightly understand its policy) aims not at abolishing vivisection, but at regulating it ethically. AGAINST ANY REGULATION WHATEVER I understand the various medical and scientific defenders of vivisection to protest. Their invariable contention, implied or expressed, is that it is no one's business what happens to an animal so long as the individual who is handling it can plead that to increase Science is his aim.
"This contention seems to me to flatly contradict the best conscience of our time. The rights of the helpless—even though they be brutes— must be protected by those who have superior power. The individual vivisector must be held responsible to some authority which he fears. The medical and scientific men, who time and time again have raised their voices in opposition to all legal projects of regulation, KNOW AS WELL AS ANYONE ELSE does the unspeakable possibilities of callousness, wantonness, and meanness of human nature, and their unanimity is the best example I know of the power of club opinion to quell independence of mind. No well-organized sect or corporation of men can ever be trusted to be truthful or moral when under fire from the outside. In this case, THE WATCHWORD IS TO DENY EVERY ALLEGED FACT STOUTLY; to concede no point of principle, and to stand firmly on the right of the individual experimenter. His being `scientific' must, in the eye of the law, be a sufficient guarantee that he can do no wrong."
It may be questioned whether more serious charges against the laboratory have ever been made than are contained in these statements by an expert in vivisection. The man of the world wonders at the unanimity of scienitfic writers of the day in opposing every step tending to reform. Professor James tells us it is due to "the power of club opinion to quell independence of mind." That the professional vivisectors as a body "CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO BE TRUTHFUL WHEN ATTACKED," that they combine "to deny every alleged fact stoutly," these are the admissions of an expert experimenter, whose record as a man of science is surely equal if not superior to that of any vivisector in America.
Professor James believed that some abuses had been rectified. He says:
"That less wrong is done now than formerly is, I hope, true. There is probably a somewhat heightened sense of responsibility. There are, perhaps, fewer lecture-room repetitions of ancient vivisections, supposed to help out the professors' dulness with their brilliancy, and to `demonstrate' what not six of the students are near enough to see, and what all had better take, as in the end they have to, upon trust. The waste of animal life is very likely lessened, the thought for animal pain less shamefaced in the laboratories than it was. These benefits we certainly owe to the antivivisection agitation, which ,in the absence of producing actualy State regulation, has gradually induced some sense of public accountability in physiologists, and made them regulate their several individual selves.