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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$It is not necessary to experiment on human beings to acquire thorough knowledge; there is no essential difference between the great functions in man and the lower animals ; the ])hysiology of the brain would be different, Pavy, 2133-9. The phenomena in horses and ealves being similar to those in the human being, the results would be analogous, Lister, 4363-6. The symptoms and effects of poisons on dogs and human beings are much the same, and so is the quantity which will produce death, Taylor, 1202. Drugs do not necessarily produce the same effect on human beings as on animals, Pritchard, 907-10. A drug may poison a dog, but not a man, Watson, 57. The effect of drugs on animals often differs widely from that on man, Watson, 35 f, y, 58. A drug may prove a poison to small birds and frogs, but an experiment with it may not yield much further information, Taylor, 1171-2. The effects of drugs on animals and on man sometimes vary; a rabbit will eat without injury sufficient belladonna to poison a dozen men, Rolleston, 1280. Dr. Hughes Bennett’s experiments on dogs were of great value for sick dogs, but none for sick men, Hauyhton, 1875. Dead animals are of little use in the study of anatomy, Paget, 342-3. Vivisection, though sometimes necessary. Burrows, 134, is comparatively rarely so, ibid., 174. The present medical men who have never practised vivisection are efficient. Cape, 1817-8. Reads passage from Pichot’s “ Life and Labours of Sir Charles Bell,” showing his reluctance to experiment and his objections to vivisection ; reads also passages as to the necessity of pain, and refers to Collier’s Translation of Celsus, Jesse, 6423-7. Puts in a reference to a sermon by Dr. Chalmers against vivi- section, ibid., 5553-6. Reads extracts giving Sir Charles Bell’s opinion on eausing ])rotracted suffering, and one referring to mental and moral attributes of animals, ibid., page 272. Quotes passages from Dr. Elliotson’s “ Human Physiology,” showing that Dr. Majendie was unnecessarily cruel; also that the experiments of various eminent men were unsatisfactory, and that Gall and Sir C. Bell objected to vivisection, ibid., page 271. Frobibition of experiments would lead to general evasion of tbe law or to tbe flight of students to foreign schools. But an eflectual restraint should be placed upon experiments made either in excessive numbers, or to establish what has been already proved, as well as upon experiments attended with great pain, and defeating tbe very object in view, and upon those undertaken merely for tbe sake of noto- riety.—Report, pp. 11, 14. XI. Statements and opinions regarding certain specified experiments. Experiments on arterial pressure should be performed under anaesthetics, Humphry, 749-50; without anesthetics experiments as to pressure of the blood must be very painful; starving to death would be protraeted suffering, Sharpey, 470. Doul)ts the veracity of the description of the experiment in the Doctor demonstrating the structure of the cornea of a frog, Humphry, 656-66. Such an experiment would not have taken place under the control of any eminent man. ibid., 673. Causing inflammation in the cornea of a frog’s eye may not be very painful, and might be done after the brain is 'destroyed, Sharpey, 548-51. Nitrate of silver applied to the cornea of a frog to produce inflammation would not be very painful, Taylor, 1256-7. Does not know whether administering curari to frogs, slitting them open, and dragging out the mesentery would be justifiable without seeing the experiment and knowing the conditions. Burrows, 243. It would be a cruel and useless experiment, the result being already known. Acland, 922-3. Cannot see what object the painful me- senteric operation referred to in Dr. Sanderson’s handl)ook can serve, Taylor, 1271. Has performed the mesenteric experiment on a frog, twice for teaching, and several times for pathological purposes, under curari, which witness con- siders an anaesthetic, Klein, 2723, 3719-26. Reads passages as to the intensity of the respiratory efforts when the animal is deprived of air, and the various phenomena observable during apnaea, Jesse, 6465. Instances experiments by the Medical and Chirurgical Society on dogs, partially drowning them, then resuscitating and half drowning them again ; it was very cruel, and, as it proved, useless. Colam, 1533. Asphyxia is now well understood; painful experiments to prove known facts should not be made, Burdon- Sanderson, 2283. Was at Norwich when absinthe was injected into a dog’s veins. The animal did not appear to suffer much, Humphry, 707-17. Considers the knowledge obtained by the experiment was of some value, ibid., 717-23. Considers 42499. the Norwich experiments were most cruel and unjustifiable, T«y7or, 1188. The Norwich ex])eriment was unnecessarily cruel; if the object was to ascertain the effect of absinthe on men, doubtless one of the purchasable voters would have got drunk on it for a consideration, Haughton, 1874-5. The majority of the Medical Association would have for- bidden such experiments, ibid., 1874. Did not witness the Norwich experiments ; thinks they were founded on wrong views ; the dogs were kept strapped down until relieved by a surgeon, Fergusson, 1086, 1106-7. Some of the experiments proposed by Professor Magnan at Oxford were prohibited by the committee, Haughton, 1951. Instances the injection of boiling water into the stomach and sand into the veins of dogs as wanton cruelty. Walker, 1802-8, 4888. Would not like to offer an opinion on the experiment of introducing boiling water into the stomach of a dog, without knowing its object. Carpenter, 5620. Reads translated details of Paul Bert’s prolonged experi- ment on the nerves of a curarised dog, kept alive by artificial respiration, and states results, Hoyyara, 4109-11, 4235, 4140-1. According to the received theory of reflex action, there may not have been sensation, but has doubts as to the correctness of the theory, ibid., 4143-53. Does not for an instant suppose that Paul Bert considered curari an anaesthetic, ibid., 4154-6. Considers that tying the nerves would cause great pain ; that experimentation was carried on during lO hours; that the sufferings were the most excruciating and atrocious conceivable, and the re- sults most trivial, ibid,, 4111-4, 4165-9, 4196-7, 4229-32. Contraction of the bladder is sometimes produced by the pain from a pinch; to obtain the same effect by such an immensity of pain was an inadequate result, ibid., 4163. The fact that the pneumo-gastric and sympathetic nerves remained intact is an instance of the previously known action of curari, and proves that in this case the dose was small, an important fact, ibid., 4157-61. Thinks the trans- lation perfectly fair, and that his own remarks on it would be justified if ten times stronger, ibid., 4170-1. In M. Paul Bert’s experiments on the pneumo-gastric and sciatic nerves, there was not sufficient regard to the infliction of the smallest amount of pain necessary, Burdon-Sanderson, 2778. Reads passages relating to the extremes of temperature which animals can endure, the phenomena attending starvation and other experiments, also as to the fuuctions of the pneumo-gastric nerve, &c., Jesse, 6473. Chosat’s experiments on starvation have given valuable results, but should not be repeated unless doubted, Burdon- Sanderson, 2774-6. Considers Chosat’s starvation experi- ments were carefully planned, and have shown that a certain temperature is necessary to preserve life, Sibson, 4751. The experiment of starving an animal to death might be tried once, but should not be repeated ; would not have undertaken one, Sharpe, 572-4. Thinks that no great pain was given, starvation at one stage deadening the nerves, and thus stopping pain, Sibson, 4787-9. Considers that the animals baked and frozen to death by Delaroche and Berger soon ceased to feel, Burdon- Sanderson, 2778-9. Thinks the experiment of raising or reducing the temperature of the body until death super- venes cannot be very painful, as the animal would soon become unconscious, Sibson, 4745-9. On raising the temperature of an animal to 112’ or 113° it practically dies ; when it sinks to about 70° it becomes unconscious, ibid., 4784-6. In Dr. Legg’s experiments on cats the tempera- ture never exceeded fever heat, Burdon-Sanderson, 2388. Goltz’s experiment of boiling a frog to death is horrible, Sibson, 4750. Considers putting a frog into water and raising the temperature to 100° Fahrenheit a cruel and purposeless experiment, Taylor, 1258-9. A frog would be killed by placing it in water and raising the temperature to 100° Fahrenheit; such an experiment should not be repeated, Rolleston, 1345-6. A frog put into water and the temperature gradually raised should be removed directly it becomes uneasy ; this is not specified in the di- rections in Dr. Sanderson’s handbook, Foster, 2421-4. Argues that placing a frog in cold water and raising the temperature would not give much pain. Parry, 2159-62. Placing a frog in water and raising the temperature would be painful, but does not think the suffering worth serious consideration. Lister, 4420. Not knowing the particulars, declines to give an opinion on the experiments for ascer- taining what temperature animals can endure, Foster, 2408-9. Star\’ing a dog in sight of food and water would not produce rabies, but would be unjustifiable from the ignorance displayed more than from the pain; does not know of any foreign experiment so painful, Burdon- Sanderson, 2764-70. Majendie’s experiments in feeding animals on gelatine or B$