Does science need secrecy? : A reply to Prof. Porter and others of Harvard medical school / By Albert Leffingwell... With statement concerning vivisection by Prof. W.T. Porter, reprinted from the "Boston transcript."
- Albert Leffingwell
- Date:
- 1896
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Does science need secrecy? : A reply to Prof. Porter and others of Harvard medical school / By Albert Leffingwell... With statement concerning vivisection by Prof. W.T. Porter, reprinted from the "Boston transcript.". Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![(From the Boston Ei'cniiti^ Traiiscripi^ ynh' ^J> ^Scpj.) CONCERNING VIVISECTION. BY WILLIAM TOWNSEND PORTER, M.D., Ass't Professor of Physiology, Harvard Medical School. [The following statement is made at the suggestion of Dr. H. P. BowDiTCH, Dr. W. T. Councilman, Dr. W. F. Whitney, Dr. C. S. Minot AND Dr. H. C. ERN8T, PROFESSORS IN THE HARVARI> MEDICAL SCHOOL, IN ANSWER TO MANY REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO EXPERI- MENTATION ON LIVING ANIMALS.] ' Keaders of the dally prints are aware that a few misinformed indi- viduals are making a persistent effort to bring about a popular agitation against the experimentation on living animals. The newspaper letters and Other communications put forth by these persons dispute the neces- sity of vivisection, aflJrming that the knowledge secured by this means is not essential to the progress of biologj', and therefore without substan- tial value for medicine, a department of general biology on which the public welfare and the happiness and prosperity of every citizen depend. It is charged that experimental studies of the functions of living animals have no purpose save the gratification of an ignoble ambition, or the satisfaction of an idle and vicious curiosity. It is asserted that living animals, without narcotics, helpless under the control of poisons which, it is alleged, destroy the power to move while increasing the power to suffer, are subjected to long, agonizing operations In the hope of securing some new fact, interesting to the scientific mind but without practical value. The cruelties practiced by vivisectors are paraded in long lists, with the assurance that they are taken directly from the pub- lished writings of the vivisectors themselves, and distressing pictures are drawn of the work of eminent professors in great universities. In short, an organized effort is making to persuade the uninformed that men who spend their lives in laying the broad and deep foundations on which alone a rational medicine can rest are wanting in common human- ity, and that the medical profession, whose work it is to lessen the suf- fering in the world, looks with indifference on useless and truly revolting cruelties done before its very eyes.* It is true that the evident exaggeration of these charges will alone discredit them with manj' who have no special knowledge of the pro- cedures so fiercely attacked, and who therefore cannot perceive that the weapons of these agitators are garbled facts, downright perversions, and mix- leading excerpts from professional writings beyond the comprehension of the untrained. It is true that the public mind will hardly be persuaded *The italics in this paper are not in the original. They are herein employed not for emphasis, but merely to indicate certain inaccurate affirmations or suggestions, to which the especial attention of the reader is directed.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2121511x_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
