Vivisection : what it is, and what it has accomplished / by John C. Dalton.

  • John Call Dalton
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vivisection : what it is, and what it has accomplished / by John C. Dalton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    VIVISECTION: WHAT IX IS, AND WHAT IT H-A^s -a.ccom;3?il.ish:e;d. By JOHN C. DALTON, M.D., Professor of Plijsiology ia the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, [Read before the New York Academy of Medicine, December 13, 1866.] Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Academy—As the subject of vivisection has been recently brought to tlie public no- tice in a way calculated to excite especial intei'estin its merits and demerits, I have thought it appropriate to make it the topic of a brief address, and to examine the question of its propriety and usefulness, as a means of improvement in the medical art. For this purpose, I propose to discuss the objections Avhich have been urged against it, and to show how ihv they are valid, and how far destitute of foundation. The objections urged against vivisection are principally three- fold ; viz. : First, that it is cruel; SeconcUt/, that it is liable to uncertainty and deception ; and TAircUi/, that, in point of fact, it has not led to valuable results. These three objections may be considered in succession. First, as to its cruelty. The injustice of this charge may be appreciated, when we remember the aim and motive of all such experiments. Their object is the improvement of medical knowl- edge, and consequently the relief of human stilFering^a-nd the cure of human diseases. Physiologists have sometimes been charged with recklessness and disregard of the lower creation in following out their passion lor experiment; and it is said of one of them°that he destroyed, in the course of his life, no fewer than tWree hun- dred and seventeen animals, with this object. Now if we de- stroy, every year, four hundred thousand cattle in South Ameri- ca* for no other purpose than to supply ourselves with boots and shoes, it does not seem a very reckless or extravagant thing to sacritice a comparatively small number of dogs and rabbits for the * The number of hides imported into the United States, during the year 1865 from Buenos Ay res alone, was 400,978. Prom the whole of South America' 525,438. '