with this difference, that many of them lose health, or suffer some disablement, and so die or are killed. But they must not be put to pain after the operation; nor must they be kept in pain. Whatever is done, must be done under anæsthesia and there must be no further experiment, no observations made through the wound after the anæsthesia passes off. If morphia be used after ether, it is used in such a dose that the animal may be, like a man or woman, in danger of dying from an over-dose of the drug. On all these points the 1901 Report is decisive : "The operations are performed aseptically, and the healing of the wounds, as a rule, takes place without pain. If the antiseptic precautions fail, and suppuration occurs, the animal is required to be killed. It is generally essential for the success of these experiments that the wound should heal cleanly, and the surrounding parts remain in a healthy condition. Experiments involving the removal of important organs, and even of parts of the brain, are performed without causing pain to the animals; and after the section of a part of the nervous system, the resulting degenerative changes are painless. "In the event of a subsequent operation being necessary in an experiment performed under Certificate B, or B linked with EE, a condition is attached to the license requiring all operative procedures to be carried out under anesthetics of sufficient power to prevent the animal feeling pain.' It is evident, from these Reports, that good care is taken to ensure a minimum of pain. If sport were thus restricted, it would soon come to an end. The first time that a sportsman wounded a bird instead of killing it, he would be censured by a Government official; the second time, his gun-license would be revoked, a question would be asked about him in Parliament, and he would be held up to execration in the daily papers, for the slow, deliberate torture of helpless animals. He could plead, in excuse, only his right to please himself and his friends in his own way, and his intention to inflict, for his own pleasure, not torture, but only death. Experiments on animals have this excuse, that they are necessary not only for science but also in practice. In physiology, and in pathology, and in the prevention and the cure of disease, and in the operations of surgery, they have helped to save human lives literally in thousands and tens of thousands. Admit, that some of them involve pain, some have no direct bearing on practice, some fail, or are misinterpreted: there remains a whole legion of ourselves, rescued from disease and death, a multitude past all reckoning and ever increasing. It might be worth the trouble, to collect and expose some of the false statements published by the opponents of all experiments on animals ; but the task would be endless. This book is concerned only with the results that have been obtained by the help of these experiments, and with the Act relating to them. It was decided, and with authority, that it should be written for |