Vivisection : is it necessary or justifiable? : being two prize essays published by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

  • Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vivisection : is it necessary or justifiable? : being two prize essays published by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Todd and Bowman speak in the same strain of such like practices:—“ Nor can we hope that truth can^be elicited from experiments and observations which are made before the public gaze, with more of the character of a theatrical exhibition than of a sober philosophical investigation.'’* Looking, then, at the practice of vivisection in its scientific * As an instance of the license permitted to these acts of cruelty, and the far from revolting light in which they are viewed by those who commit them, let me refer to a Mr. Wainde, surgeon, of Kirby Moorside, who could not be con- tented with his torturing proclivities in private, but must needs advertise them in the public journal of a fashionable watering place. Writing to the Scarboro’ Mei’cury in the early part of 1860, he says: “Having noticed the rapidity with which wounds grow up and heal in the lower classes of animals, I have often revolved in my mind the possibility of uniting, by keeping in strict approximation the raw surfaces of two animals not only of different species, but of totally different genera. With this view I have, at various times, endeavoured to produce adhesive inflammation between two animals, by removing the whole of the true skin on a part of each, equal in extent, and then keeping the divided parts in approximation by means of bandages. In the last experiment of the kind that I made, I was eminently successtul. Having had some time in my possession a rat, which had not quite attained its full growth, and which was to a great extent tamed, as it would permit anyone to approach and caress it with- out any signs of fear, I determined upon making a final attempt, and I was confident of success. The next step was to procure another animal with which to unite it; and for this purpose I obtained a full-grown crow. Having removed the skin from the back of the rat, I with a scalpel removed a slice of the sub- cutaneous tissue, about two lines in thickness, so that the mouths of the minute blood-vessels might be opened. I then took off the feathers from the breast of the bird, and performed precisely the some operation, with regartl to the size and thickne.ss of the piece of flesh removed, which was one of an oval form, and about two and-a-half inches long, by one 5-8 ths broad, or thereabouts. “ After sponging the parts with a little cold water, I placed the crow with its legs across the back of the rat, and, by means of a long narrow ban- dage kept them in such a position that they could not retract the incised surface n the feast. I had them fed reguarly every four hours, though for the first day the crow ate nothing. At the end of sixteen days I removed the bandages, and was delighted (!) to find that the whole surfaces were united, except at the extreme edges of the wound, the skin was beginging to unite. They now present a most peculiar appearance, and do not seem by any means di.«posed to part company. The crow scarcely possesses power of wing sufficient to lift its companion far from the ground, though it flutters along at the height of a foot or two. for several yards. Should any one be sceptical as to the fact, I shall have great pleasure in showing them the subjects of the experiment, if they will make it convenient to pay me a visit.” Is it not a mattter for regret that the law did not admit of his finst \iciti.r being a police constable armed with power sufficient to kerji this visitor in “ strict approximation” to a coll in the nearest prison! Who can woi i er after this that these rimusiny and deliglUful experiments shoul<l Le the admira- tion of a certain class ! Can we blame young people, and tlic.^e who have the powers of life and death over harmless creatures, if they ])erfonn cruel .acts, when they have such examples among the members of a humane profession, whose experiments are as aimless and unmeaning as they aie disgustuigly wicked.”