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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$there was' evident weakness of all the limbs, more especially of the hind extremities. On placing the hand over the wall of the chest the pulsations of the heart could be dis- tinctly seen and felt. The animal continued in this state for nearly four hours, when it began slowly to recover. It appeared to be out of health, and fi’equently refused food for four days after this experiment. A week after the preceding experiment the same dog weighed 15 lbs., and was made to take a second dose of poison. 6. Antagonism between Tea, Coffee, Cocaine, Theine, Caffeine, other. One hundred and seventy-six dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, and frogs were under treatment, the expressions of whose sufferings are too horrible to peruse. The following extracts are only two out of many detailed descriptions. Experiment 430.—Six grains of theine. Cat. Death. Post-mortem examination.—Six grains of theine, dissolved in a drachm and a half of water, were injected under the skin over the back of a healthy cat weighing 4 lbs. 1 oz. In ten minutes the animal became very irritable and angry. Fifteen minutes later this excitement had increased ; the animal had a watchful anxious appearance, prowled about, and when touched with a stick bit at it and growled. If any noise or motion were made it arched the back, and made a hissing noise. The legs appeared weakened, and although it could walk about it jireferred sitting in a corner of the room. Its mouth and tongue were very red, and there was an abundant secretion of saliva, which constantly trickled out of its mouth. The cat defaecated and mictu- rated several times. Forty minutes later it continued in much the same condition. Salivation was profuse. Animal suffered from tenesmus, and it had a constant straining from the bowel of a clear fluid like mucus. The limbs, especially the posterior ones, were much weakened, but the animal could still run with difficulty. It could not jump ; it made attempts to do so over, a bench about two feet high, but failed. The breathing was laboured and irregular. The redness of the tongue and mouth, as well as the ex- cessive irritability of the animal, had disappeared. It was quiet, lay in a corner, stupid and drowsy. It drank freely of water. Twenty minutes later it was prostrate and lay on its side, its limbs quite helpless. It paid no attention to a pinch of the toe or a blow on the tail with a stick. It seemed, however, to be intelligent, as its eyes watched every movement of the observer, and when the hands were clapped before its face it growled. The salivation and discharge from the bowel were excessive. Pupils were contracted and the breathing was laboured. . Five minutes later the cat took a series of tetanic spasms, and shortly afterwards died. . . . . . . Experiment 433.—Twelve grains of theine. Rabbit. S]flnal cord exposed during hfe.—A healthy white rabbit, weighing 2 lbs. 2 oz., was carefully fastened down on its belly. An incision was made through the skin along the ujjper part of the spine about two inches in length, and the vertebral column exposed. By means of bone forceps and scissors portions of the vertebrae were removed so as to expose a piece of the spinal cord about a quarter of an inch in length. On toudiing the posterior columns with the point of a blunt needle the animal struggled violently and uttered loud cries. ..... With regard to the dogs. Dr. Bennett says, “These “ experiments were considered to be so unsatisfactory that ‘ they were abandoned.” 7. The antagonism between the ^Extract of Calabar Bean and Strychnine. Twenty-four rabbits were tortured under this head. 8. The antagonism between Bromal Hydrate and Atrophina. Forty rabbits were tortured under this division. Dr. Bennett closing it by saying, “ The experiments were not encouraging, as all the animals died.” The conclusion shows torture to 619 animals ; and this is not enough. Dr. Crichton Browne says, (No. 7^3,BritishMedicalJournal, p. 409), and he proceeds, therefore, to give picrotxine with chloral hydrate to another large number of animals, which produces in them spasms in all the muscles of the body, and causes biting of the tongue, foaming at the mouth, &C.J &c. A concise answer to the question, what is poison ? really seems more difficult than ever. Men gradually habituate themselves to the use of opium, tobacco, &c., till their daily dose is sufficient to kill from two to ten of then* own species. Sheep have been known to consume unwhole- feed on hemlock; hedgehogs swallow almost anything; and the common toad cares little for hydrocyanic acid. Ultimately we come to the acari, which appear to enjoy a perfect immunity from the usual effects of a so-called poison ;. for here strychnine is only a poison in the same sense-that starch would be poison to man, namely, in that it does not contain every element necessary for the repro- duction of tissue.—Lancet, 2,015, p. 389. Experiments on animals, already extensive and numerous, cannot be said to have advanced therapeutics much. I kill a strong man, and yet the bird was in no way affected; and I have heard of goats feeding on shag tobacco and rabbits on belladonna leaves without taking any harm; yet from these experiments to, infer that belladonna and tobacco were innocuous to man would be a grave error. Probably calomel given to a healthy dog might cause a temporary irritation and congestive obstruction of the animal’s biliary apparatus, thus showing that calomel has an action over the liver; but I cannot see my way clear to infer the action of mercury on a sick man from what we see of its. action on a healthy dog.—Dr. Thorowgood, Medical Times and Gazette, October 5, 1872. Dr. Marcet said if he understood rightly Dr. Harley’s meaning, his interesting paper showed that small doses of arsenic continued for a long time do produce poisonous effects. A question, however, was still open to discussion, viz., how are we to account for the reported innocuous and even protective effects from the practice of arsenic-eating, which it is stated is carried on extensively in Styria? Indeed we are given to understand that in Styrian arsenic works the workmen take arsenic with a view of escaping the poisonous effects of its fumes. He (Dr. Marcet) observed finally that men and animals were not equally affected by poisons, a fact which it was important to bear in mind when experimenting with poisons on animals with the view of ajiplying the results to mankind.—Lancet, No. 1,995, p. 499. [See also Langleys p. 7, Harley, p. 20, Yeo, p. 38, and Moore and Reynolds, p. 39.] 1st. If I divide the posterior column and almost the whole of the lateral column of the spinal cord, with the posterior and central parts of the grey matter in the dorsal region in a guinea-pig, I find, when the animal has become epileptic, that the irritation of the part of the face and neck wliich I have called epileptogenous determines reflex convulsive movements everywhere, except in the posterior limb on the side of the injury. This lack of reflex move- ments is not due to a paralysis of the nerves serving to voluntary movements, as, if that limb is at first a little paralysed after the operation, it soon recovers power, and has no trace of weakness by the time epileptic fits can be provoked. • 2nd. If only the posterior column and a very slight part of the grey matter, with a still slighter part of the lateral column of the spinal cord, is divided in a guinea-pig in the dorsal region, the fom- limbs are attacked with reflective convulsive movements when the epileptogenous zone is irritated. In this case -fce encephalon communicates with the posterior limb on tlie side of the injury for both voluntary and reflected convulsive movements. 3rd. If in another animal the lesions mentioned in the preceding experiments have been made at the same level of the cord, one on the right side the other on the left side, I find that the two sides of the face and neck acquire the epileptogenous power, and that fits can therefore be pro- duced by. the irritation of either side, but whether the right or left side be irritated, there are reflected convulsive movements only in three limbs, the posterior one on the side where the lateral column of the cord is di\ ided re- maining without the least convulsion, while the three other limbs are violently conA’ulsed. Both lower limbs, how- ever, remain endowed with strong voluntary movements. 4th. In animals having had a complete section of a lateral half of the spinal cord at the level of the vertebra, and having become epileptic, I have ascertained that the voluntary movements after a period of very great diminu- tion in the posterior limb on the side of the lesion, return gradually almost to the normal condition in a variable number of months. In many guinea-pigs having re- covered voluntary movements, ev'en for a year or eighteen months, I have seen but very slight convulsions in the ^posterior limb on the side of the injury. Re-union of nerve-fibres serving to voluntary motor fibres can therefore$