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

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.

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$the crura cerebelli of rabbits. The author, working under the direction of Professor Eckbard, has taken great care to ascertain the exact position and extent of the lesion which he inflicted. He gives an exact description of his mode of operating, which will prove of not a little service to those who may wish to perform experiments, whether for the purpose of research or demonstration. In his experiments on the “ tract of the crus cerebelli, formed by the anterior and posterior crus,” he found that very much the same effects followed a variety of injuries to the tract comprehending punctures to the depth of one, usually two, millimetres, some in its middle, some on its outer, others on its inner side. Irregular but not violent contractions followed these injuries. Voluntary movement was slightly disturbed. Some animals showed a tendency to lie upon the injured side. In a second series’ of researches he studied the effect of complete di^dsion of this tract. The section was follo^yed by irregular convulsive contractions of varying intensity, extending throughout the entire body. Voluntary movement seemed to be entirely abolished. The animal lay upon the injured side and fell always into this position when it was placed in any other. Some animals were observed in this state for three or four hours, others died from the haemorrhage, which the operation for exposure of the brain had occasioned.—Journal of Anatomy At the recent meeting of the British Medical Association Dr. Brunton read a paper, communicated by Dr. Perrier, containing an “ Abstract of Experiments on the Brains of “ Monkeys, with special reference to the Localisation of “ Sensory Centres in the Convolutions.” The experi- ments, which were conducted by trephining and the destruction of the sensory centres by means of a red hot wire, led to the following results; These centres are bilateral, so that when one of the centres of touch was destroyed there was loss of tactile sensibility in the corresponding half of the body. Stimulation of the centre of hearing caused the animal to prick up its ears, as if it heard something, while destruction of the whole of this centre rendered the creature totally deaf. Destruction of the centre of vision corresponding to one eye {e.g„ the riht) only rendered the animal temporarily blind in that ew, the function, after 24 hours, being carried on by the opposite centre. In the discussion that followed Dr. Nairne pointed out that other observers had arrived at conclusions different from those of Dr. Perrier, and that the brain of a monkey could not be taken as exactly similar to that of a man; but Dr. Brunton thought the mistake made by German and other investigators who differed from Dr. Perrier was, that they took the brains of animals lower even than the monkey to correspond with that of man. M. Dupuy had arrived at different results. He said that he had found that when the centres of motion on one side of the brain were removed paralysis followed for a short time throughout the corresponding part of the body, but that when the centres were removed from both sides of the brain there was no paralysis at all.—Lancet, Dr. Brown Sequard, in a lecture before the Boston Society of Natural History, published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, dissents altogether from the con- clusions that have been drawn on this subject, and which have lately occupied so much attention. Our readers will remember that Pritsch and Hitzig, followed by Charcot, Perrier, and others, concluded that the fronta-parietal convolutions of the brain are the centres for the voluntary movements of definite groups of muscles; but Brown Sequard explains the facts in quite another way.—The Doctor, October 1st, 1875, p. 181. Prof. Hitzig refers to Burdon Sanderson’s experiments, and remarks “ that the localised ])oints on the suri'ace of “ the brain given by B. Sanderson do not correspond with “ those described by himself.”—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, November 1874, p. 210. [See also p. 39.] On the Suffocation of Animals. About the year 1860 the Royal Humane Society received several suggestions from Dr. Silvester for restoring sus- pended animittion in* persons apparently drbwned. Other on the merits of which that body felt itself unable to decide, and consequently its committee desired the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society to investigate the several proposals, without indicating the tests which that learned body should apply, or the means they should adopt. It is important to bear in mind that the Royal Humane Society is in no way answerable for the course taken by the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, and that they were not even aware, until the delivery of the report from which the following extracts are made, that experiments on animals had been performed by the Committee of Investigation. Seventy-six experiments were made on animals, in only a few of which amesthesia was present; and after the terrible sufferings'caused by plugging their windpipes to suffocate them, holding them under water, and in some cases restoring them to life for further experimentation, burying their heads in liquid plaster of Paris or mercury, cauterizing their bodies with an iron heated to a white heat, &c. &c., the committee, it will be seen, report that they were unable to recommend any material improvement in the plan adopted by the society. Report of the Committee appointed by the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society to investigate the subject of Suspended Animation. Members of the committee.—C. J. B. William_s, M.D., F.R.S.; C. E. Brown-Sequard, M.D., F.R.S.; George Harley, M.D.; W. S. Kirkes, M.D.; H. Hyde Salter, M.D., F.R.S.; J. B. Sanderson, M.D.; W. S. Savory, F.R.S.; E. H. Sieveking, M.D. (ex officio). pursue the inquiry— By means of experiments upon living animals. By means of experiments upon the human body. Two sub-committees were forthwith appointed for these purposes. Report of the Sub-Committee appointed to investigate the subject of Suspended Animation by means of Experiments upon living Animals. In investigating anew the subject of apnoea by means of experiments on the lower animals, it seemed expedient to observe, in the first place, the principal phenomena of apncea in its least complicated form, viz., when produced by simply depriving the animal of-air. The following plan of effecting this was adopted :— The animal was secured on its back, and the trachea was exposed by a single incision in the mesial line of the neck. A ligature having been passed round it, it was opened by a vertical cut, and a glass tube, as large as could be con- veniently inserted, was passed into it for a short distance downwards, and firmly secured by the ligature. Through this tube, while patent, the animal breathed freely, but the supply of air could be at once completely cut off by inserting a tightly fitting cork into the upiier end of the tube. It was ascertained by separate experiments that the tube thus plugged with the cork was perfectly air- tight. ...... The duration of the heart’s action was conveniently ascertained by means of a long pin inserted through the thoracic walls into some part of the ventricles. So long as the heart continued to beat the pin moved, and its motions were thus recorded for some time after the cardiac sounds had ceased to be audible ;— Experiment 1.—A full-grown healthy dog was suddenly deprived of air by plugging the tube placed in the trachea in the manner already described. Its first struggle • occurred in 25 seconds ; its first respiratory effort was not recorded, its last took place at 4 minutes 40 seconds, and its last heart’s beat at 6 minutes 40 seconds, or exactly 2 minutes after the last respiratory effort. [Eight similar experiments were performed on dogs, rabbits, and one cat. In three of these the plug was with- drawn at about 4§ minutes, but the animals were found to be dead.] From nine experiments it is seen, that in the dog the average duration of the respiratory movements after the animal had been deprived of air, is 4 minutes 5 seconds, the extremes being 3 minutes 30 seconds and 4 minutes 40 seconds. The average duration of the heart’s action on the other hand is 7 minutes .11 seconds, the extremes being 6 minutes 40 seconds and 7 minutes 45 seconds. Lastly, these experiments lead to the belief that on an average the heart’s action continues for 3 minutes 15 seconds after the animal has ceased to make respiratory efforts. The extremes being 2 and 4 minutes respectively, In the case of the three rabbits experimented upon, we find that on an average they ceased to make respiratory efforts in 3 minutes 25 seconds; that their heart’s action Z z 3$