An Ethical Problem | Page 2

has yet appeared. To hope for absolute accuracy in a work of this character may be impossible; yet that ideal has been constantly before the writer. Should any errors of the kind be discovered to exist in the present edition, their indication is sincerely desired.
In the chapter "Unfair Methods of Controversy" some illustrative cases were given without mention, now and then, of the persons criticized. It seemed to the writer that in certain instances it should be quite sufficient to point out and to condemn inaccuracies and errors without bringing upon the record every individual name. No misunderstanding could possibly exist, since the references were ample in every case. But since this reticence, in at least one instance, has been criticized by an unfriendly reviewer, it is perhaps better to state that the repeated allusions to Lord Lister's journeyings to France, and the article in Harper's Monthly for April, 1909, were from the pen of the author of Animal Experimentation--a work which is reviewed in the Appendix to the present edition. To his advanced age--now far beyond the allotted span--we may ascribe the inaccuracies which, at an earlier period of his career, would doubtless have been recognized.
A. L.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION - - - - - xi
I. WHAT IS VIVISECTION? - - - - 1 II. ON CERTAIN MISTAKES OF SCIENTISTS - - 12 III. AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIVISECTOR - - - 22 IV. MAGENDIE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES - - - 29 V. A VIVISECTOR'S REMORSE - - - - 47 VI. IS TORTURE JUSTIFIED BY UTILITY? - - 57 VII. THE COMMENCEMENT OF AGITATION - - - 66 VIII. ATTAINMENT OF REGULATION IN ENGLAND - - 88 IX. A GREAT PROTESTANT - - - - 113 X. THE VIVISECTION REPORT OF 1912 - - - 127 XI. THE ANAESTHETIC DELUSION - - - 149 XII. THE VIVISECTION OF TO-DAY - - - 162 XIII. WHAT IS VIVISECTION REFORM? - - - 196 XIV. THE WORK OF REFORM SOCIETIES - - - 216 XV. UNFAIR METHODS OF CONTROVERSY - - - 228 XVI. RESEARCH WITHOUT VIVISECTION - - - 254 XVII. THE FUTURE OF VIVISECTION - - - 276 XVIII. THE FINAL PHASE: EXPERIMENTATION ON MAN - 289 XIX. CONCLUSION - - - - - 326
APPENDIXES - - - - 333-364C INDEX - - - - 365-369 PRESS NOTICES - - - - 371-374
INTRODUCTION
It is now somewhat over a third of a century since my attention was specially directed to the abuses of animal experimentation. In January, 1880, a paragraph appeared in a morning paper of New York referring to the late Henry Bergh. With his approval a Bill had come before the legislature of the State of New York providing for the abolition of all experiments upon living animals--whether in medical colleges or elsewhere--on the ground that they were without benefit to anybody, and demoralizing alike to the teacher and student. As I dropped the paper, it occurred to me that the chances of success would have been far greater if less had been asked. That certain vivisections were atrocious was undoubtedly true; but, on the other hand, there were some experiments that were absolutely painless. Would it not be wiser to make some distinctions?
The attempt was made. An article on the subject was at once begun, and in July of the same year it was published in Scribner's Magazine, the predecessor of the Century. So far as known, it was the first argument that ever found expression in the pages of any American periodical favouring not the entire abolition of vivisection, but the reform of its abuse.
My knowledge of vivisection had its beginning in personal experience. Nearly forty years ago, while teaching the elements of physiology at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, it occurred to me to illustrate the statements of textbooks by a repetition of such simple experiments as had come before my own eyes. Most of my demonstrations were illustrative of commonplace physiological phenomena: chloroform was freely used to secure unconsciousness of the animal, and with the exception of one or two demonstrations, the avoidance of pain or distress was almost certainly accomplished.
But what especially impressed me at the time was the extraordinary interest which these experiments seemed to excite. Students from advanced classes in the institute were often spectators and voluntary assistants. Of the utility of such demonstrations as a means of fixing facts in memory, I could not have the slightest doubt. Nor as regards the rightfulness of vivisection as a method either of study or demonstration, was there at that period any question in my mind. Whatever Science desired, it seemed to me only proper that Science should have. The fact that certain demonstrations or experiments upon living animals had already been condemned as unjustifiable cruelty by the leading men in the medical profession, and by