Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The modern rack; papers on vivisection. 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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![he move his little legs and arms by those bands he calls his muscles; and what is the meaning of that curious internal bag, into which he is always cramming bread and fruit and (horrible to think !) the flesh of other animals ? Truly, I believe, my dear fellow-cherubim, we could scarcely find, in any of the hundred million spheres around us, a more interesting point whereat to commence our studies than this very Physiology of Man j and I for my part, as the Archangelic Healer, confidently hope 10 hit on some beneficent discoveries which, as in the case of Tobit, may enable me to cure these poor creatures' maladies. [All the Angels tumulticously applaud, and St. Raphael con- tinues : ] To effect our purpose, it will be desirable to adopt their own method of scientific research and make investigations into the structure of these little beings, especially into their nervous systems; and to collect and verify as many facts as possible about their various organs—how they are kept alive, and how long it takes to kill them when they are dipped in boiling water, or starved, or put in an oven, and so on. Eloa (starting up). Oh, Saint Raphael! you don't mean to say you would suffocate, or starve, or bake those miserable crea- tures ? Consider, they are evidently sensitive to pain. Raphael (reprovingly). Dear Eloa! do not be so excitable ! Nothing will be attempted, I can assure you, beyond the legiti- mate demands of Science. Grave doubts may be entertained as to whether Men are anything more than Automata; but, even granting they have some dim feelings of pain and pleasure, it would surely be absurd for a moment to put their sensations in competition with the noble thirst for knowledge now stirring in the Angelic mind ? Only think of placing a man's existence or suffering in the balance against the acquirement of some great truth by Archangels like Gabriel, Michael, or myself! Eloa {weeping and clasping her hands). Oh, Saint Raphael ! when you speak thus, and draw up your majestic form a thousand fathoms high, and shake your iridescent wings, I feel how poor 16](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21225734_0251.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
