M. Richet has found that strong and repeated electrical stimulation, will cause, in rabbits and dogs, a tetanus comparable in its results to the traumatic form.
“In the dogs the electricity employed was not sufficiently powerful to arrest respiration, and death was due to the elevation of temperature. The ascent of the thermometer was extremely rapid, so that after the tetanus had lasted for half-an-hour, the lethal temperature of 111 or 112 F. was reached.… The proof that the increased body heat was the cause of death was furnished by the fact that if the animal is kept cool by artificial means it may bear for more than two hours extremely strong currents, which cause severe tetanus without dying for some days. The capacity for generating this great temperature under electrisation does not disappear even after prolonged application, and it is not influenced by previous fasting for two or three days.… Usually death occurs when a temperature of 112° is attained, but in some cases it reached 112·5 and even 113·3. If the temperature did not rise above 110° death did not ensue on the same or the following day; after this point however, although death may not be immediate, it occurs within 24 hours.… At 111° the breathing is so frequent that it is hardly possible to count it and so feeble that scarcely any air enters the thorax.”—Lancet, September 17th, 1881, p. 515.
Richet, Charles, Rue Bonaparte, 5, Paris. B. at Paris 1850. M.D., Paris, 1877.
Author of “Recherches expérimentelles et cliniques sur la sensibilité,” Paris, 1877.
Made experiments on fishes reported to the Acad. de Sciences, Oct. 24, 1881.
“Pain is a purely central phenomenon. It is a sensation that may exist, even to intensity, without manifesting its presence by any external sign, and consequently it is impossible to gauge it. All physiologists know that during vivisection there is an entire dissimilarity in the manner in which animals seem to suffer. Some remain motionless, the eyes fixed, neither struggling nor moaning; they appear as if struck by stupor. Others on the contrary groan and howl, never remaining a moment without struggling or endeavouring to escape. Every incision that is made, every laceration, every pull is instantly followed by a shock which interferes with the result of the experiment.… I will point out, moreover, the fact observed by the physiologists at Alport. The blood of the animals used for operations is almost devoid of fibrine, like the blood of animals that have been overworked. As regards dyspepsia and disorders of the digestive functions which prolonged pain brings on, the phenomenon is rather psychical than physiological, and pain acts similarly to grief and privation.”—“Recherches expérimentelles et cliniques sur la sensibilité,” Collection de Thèses École de Médicine, Paris, 1877, p. 255.
“When it is a question of scientific research one must act resolutely, without considering the pain.”—Revue des deux Mondes, Feb. 15, 1883.
“I do not believe that a single experimenter says to himself when he gives curari to a rabbit, or cuts the spinal marrow of a dog, or poisons a frog: ‘Here is an experiment which will relieve or will cure the disease of some men.’ No, in truth, he does not think of that! He says to himself ‘I shall clear up an obscure point, I will seek out a new fact.’ And this scientific curiosity which alone animates him, is explained by the high idea he has formed of Science. This is why we pass our days in fœtid laboratories (dans les salles nauséabondes), surrounded by groaning creatures, in the midst of blood and suffering, bent over palpitating entrails.”—Ibid.
“Science has nothing to do with utility, or rather the true utilitarians are those who have hope in the science of the future.”—Ibid.