Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes : with minutes of evidence and appendix.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vivisection
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes : with minutes of evidence and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    382/450 (page 352)
    App. IV. a bar made with a hole at each end into which a fork of steel ])asses and is secured bj a screw. The fork may ' then be fastened by a nut to an upright rod, as m Czermak’s holder (Fig. 2 B). Cats and guinea-pigs may be fastened by Czermak’s holder. For guinea-pigs, a little padding must be placed between y and g ,in order to make them catch the head. A .simple bar and cord may also be used for ralibits, cats, and guinea-pigs as well as for dogs. Narcotising AiihrMls.—Navcotics cannot be girm in all cases to animals on which we experiment, as their action must to a certain extent complicate that of the drug which we wish to investigate. We cannot use them when we me observing what are the general symptoms which a medicine ]H’oduces. But when we are investigating its action on particular organs we may often use them, not only with safety but with advantage, when they have no action on the particular organ which we are studying, or so little that its disturbing influence is more than compensated by the diminished muscular action and consequent ease in per- forming the ex]ieriment which narcotics produce. It is tilmost unnecessary to say that, in all cases which admit of it, narcotics should be used, as we have no right to inflict any unnecessary pain, although we may be justified.in taking ' the lives of the lower animals in order to preserve the more valuable life of man, either by supplying him with food by means of those killed in the slaughterhouse or by obtaining the knowledge which shall enable us to cure disease by- means of those killed in our experiments. The narcotics which we use are opium and chloral. Chloroform is inad- missible, I as its administration generally seems .to cause dogs more pain than the experiment itself, and rabbits are very easily killed by it. . . • • • When we wish to render the animal absolutely motionless, or to observe v.diat effect any drug will produce afccr the motor nerves have been paralysed, we give curare. Curare may be obtained from Messrs. Ilopkin and Wil- li-ams. New Cavendish Street, London, or from Bruckner and Lampe.—Dr. Brunton, British MedicalJuurnal, No. 542, pp. 321 and 322. so as to avoid mechanically injuring it or producing conges- tion by obstructing the flow of blood through its vessels. At the end of two hours the ear was withdrawn and several spots of erosion, some as large as a sixpenny^-piece, were observed on its surface, but nowhere was it eaten completely through. On being replaced for another two hours and a half, the tip, to the extent of about a half or three quarters of an inch, was almost completely removed, a small remnant of it only being left attached by a narrow shred to the remainder of the ear. The gastric juice seemed to act like a strongly corrosive material, making first a number of ulcerated- looking spot's through the skin and afterwards extending its action more rapidly thi-ough the central parts of the ear. A rather profuse haemorrhage took place, especially towards the latter part of the experiment. . My own fingers became moistened with gastric juice that escaped by the side of the ear, and afterwards felt sore or tender as if the skin had been slightly acted on.—Dr. Puvy, Lancet, No. 2,070, p. 492. An experiment, illustrated by a drawing, shows a, living frog strapped down to a board, its sciatic nerve dissected out, bared, and brought out of its body from its thigh to its loins, and attached to a galvanometer, after which strychnia is introduced under its skin, and a result from the action of the tortured nerve is shown on the needle jof the instrument.—Dr. Radcliffe, Lancet, No. 2,061, p. 22/. The Parisian Correspondent describes his attendance at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, and says ;—These phenomena occur even when a drop of ammonia is inserted into the eye of an animal, and whilst the organ is strongly closed duringthe paroxysm of pain which ensues.—Lancet, No. 2,037, p. 298. Experiments were made on small animals. The spinal cord was artificially inflamed by having a thread passed through it. The appearances found were contraction of the axis-cylinders, subsequent fissiparious division of the contracted portions, and the formation of pus from these. The nerve cells were affected with granular or “ oedematous ” degeneration. The neuroglia was somewhat increased, but not to a great extent. The perivascular lymphatic spaces of the surrounding pia mater were filled with lymph- coi’])uscles. One or two cases were quoted in confirmation of the facts.—TAe Doctor, October 1st, 1875, p. 195. Mr. Bert has been instituting a series of experiments in illustration of “ the phenomena and causes of the death of fresh-water animals when plunged into sea-water.” A frog, vrhen immersed in sea-water, is much agitated, and exhibits signs of pain, unless he can keep his muzzle above the surface. When all signs of sensibility have dis- appeared, the nerves and muscles are still found to be excitable, and the heart, filled with dark blood, is still seen to beat spontaneously. . _ . . . If the sciatic nerve of a rabbit be divided in the ham, and the end which is in connection with the brain be dissected out and laid across the poles of a galvanic cell, the animal screams with pain and strains with convulsive movements when the circuit is closed or opened. Before the time when the portion of the nerve which is included in the circuit is paralysed by the current, the screams and convulsions happen equally at the closing and opening of the circuit, and it is immaterial whether the positive or the negative pole be in the position next the brain. Aftp- the time when the portion of nerve which is included in the circuit is paralysed by the current the screams and con- vulsions are present at the closing of the circuit and absent at the opening when the negative pole is- in position next to the brain, and absent at the closing of the circuit and present at the opening when the positive^ pole is in the position next the brain. Pain and convulsion, that is to say, come together and go together. In a word, there is reason to believe that the electrical changes which a sentient nerve experiences in the, production of sensation are the exact equivalents of the electrical changes which a motor nerve experiences in the production of musciilar contraction.—Dr. Radclijf'c, Lancet, No. 2,067, p. 409. Through a fistulous opening into the stomach of a dog Bernard introduced, whilst digestion was going on, the hind legs of a living frog. The legs were dissolved away, the animal continuing all the while alive, and living for some time even after the experiment was completed. I have repeated this ex])eriment myself and obtained a similar result. It proves unquestionably that the stomach has the power of dissolving living substances. I performed an experiment sub.stituting the ear of a rabbit for the hind legs of a frog. Whilst my dog with a fistulous opening in its stomach was at a period of full digestion, I carefully introduced through the cannula the ear of a vigorous rabbit and held it in position with the hands The animal is found to have lost from one-fifth to one- third of its weight, the loss being chiefly borne by the muscles, which present a continuous or durable contraction like a kind of cramp. Frog lived one hour in sea-water.—Edinburgh Medical Journal, \S7l~72, 473. By a new method of operation, a description of which is given in the original, they were enabled to remove the first thoracic ganglion without injury to the pleura, and in consequence, never observed pleuritis, as is common in the other methods of operation, and as said by some to depend upon the e.xtirpation of the said ganglion. On the contrary neither increase of the temperature of the ear, nor of the fore foot, or the opposite side.operated on were missed, also the oculo pupillary phenomena will be the vascularisation of the conjunctiva as occurs after section of the sympathetic in the neck. Rotatory move- ments were absent.—Journal of Anatomy and Physioloay, November 1874, p. 213. For the production of coughing the author employed mechanical stimulants, feathers, pinching, teasing, squeez- ing with forceps, chemical irritants (common salt and ammonia), thermal (ice) and electrical stimuli were em- ployed. [For these experiments on cats and dogs,^ it is said, the animals “ in no case ” were narcotised.]—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, November 1864, p. 218. Blindness of the opposite eye and paralytic dilatation of the corresponding pupil can be produced, while stimulation of the same spot is followed by strong and continued contrac- tion of tl)e ])uj)il.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, February 1875, p. 210.