Remarks on the use of vivisection as a means of scientific research : in a letter addressed to the Earl of Caernarvon, President of the Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals / by Richard Jameson.
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Remarks on the use of vivisection as a means of scientific research : in a letter addressed to the Earl of Caernarvon, President of the Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals / by Richard Jameson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![]2 not, but merely to show how dangerous it is to use dou- ble-edged arguments which cut both ways. If Moses says (as quoted by Mr. Macaulay), “ Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn,” he says equally, “ If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned.” It is remarkable that among the numerous passages which Mr. Macaulay cites from the writings of King David, there is not a single precept* which enjoins humanity to brutes! all the quotations from the Psalms are descriptive either of God’s power over the animal creation, or of the cruelty of men towards each other. Having thus noticed some of the more active oppo- nents and denouncers of Vivisection, I proceed to the consideration of my second proposition : II. That the pain resulting from experiments on Ani- mals is exaggerated. We are so much the creatures of habit, and the words of the great masters of our language are so in- woven, as it were with our very being, that we insen- sibly take our notions of history and morals from them, and on their authority receive as truths, state- * The practice of this monarch was notoriously the A'ery reverse of humane. When he conquered the Syrians, he “ houghed all the chariot horses.” (2 Sam. viii. 4.) Nor was he less cruel to his human captives : ” Whosoever getteth up to the gutter and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain.” (2 Sam. v. 8.) “ And he brought out the people that were in it (llabhah) and att them with saws, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21970038_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
