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THE PROS AND CONS OF VIVISECTION


_All rights reserved_

[Illustration: "LA MORT."

_By Bartholome in Pere Lachaise, Paris._

_Frontispiece._]




THE PROS AND CONS OF VIVISECTION

BY

DR CHARLES RICHET

PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE

PARIS


WITH A PREFACE BY

W. D. HALLIBURTON, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON

LONDON

DUCKWORTH & CO.

3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN

1908




PREFACE


To scientific readers, Professor Charles Richet needs no introduction, but
to the public at large it may be necessary to mention that he is one of the
best known of French physiologists. He has occupied for a good many years
the Chair of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and he has
contributed greatly to the progress of the science to which he has devoted
his life; some of his discoveries are alluded to with all modesty in the
pages which follow. He is, moreover, a man of great erudition, and has been
wisely selected to be the editor of a monumental work, _Le dictionnaire de
physiologie_, which is issuing from the press to-day.

Professor Richet has given particular attention to the study of the
psychological side of physiology, and his views on pain will be read as
coming from one who is specially fitted to deal with this and other mental
phenomena.

I therefore consider it a great honour that Professor Richet should have
asked me to write a preface to his most interesting and convincing book on
the Pros and Cons of Vivisection, and it is a great pleasure to me to
commend its thoughtful perusal to all who are interested in the subject.

Professor Richet is not only one who speaks with authority, but he is one
of the gentlest and kindliest of men. The science which he teaches is the
science of life. To understand the meaning of vital processes it is
necessary to study the living organism, and to obtain this knowledge it is
sometimes necessary to perform experiments on living animals. When he
defends a practice which many regard as cruel, detestable, and immoral,
mainly because of the unscrupulous misrepresentations put forward by the
professional Anti-vivisectionists, he does so because he is convinced that
none of the epithets just mentioned correctly describe the experiments
which are carried out in physiological laboratories at the present time.
These experiments are undertaken only by properly qualified persons having
a due sense of their responsibilities. Every regard is paid to the comfort
of the animals employed; and the ultimate aim of this work is the progress
of knowledge, and the consequent relief to suffering which is so often only
the result of ignorance. The benefits which accrue are felt not only by
human beings, but also (as in veterinary practice) by the animals
themselves. No attempt is made here to defend experiments which have not
these objects in view, or which (as has happened in the past) pay no
consideration to the pain an animal experiences.

I feel quite sure that if the British public were convinced that the
experiments in our laboratories were all conducted in accordance with our
present law, the Anti-vivisection crusade would flicker out. It is the
object of those who are active propagandists on the other side to keep
their agitation going, by omitting to mention the painlessness of the
operations performed, or by suggesting (either directly or by innuendo)
that anaesthesia is a sham. My own experience, which is a wide one, has been
that physiologists not only obey the law literally, but are most
punctilious in its due observance. A certain number of trivial
irregularities have been reported to the Home Office by the inspectors
appointed under the Vivisection Act, but there has been no case of omitting
the use of anaesthetics. The majority of these offences have been for using
anaesthetics unnecessarily. A certificate in certain cases is granted for
the omission of an anaesthetic: this is given when the operation is a
trifling one, and has never been granted for any operation more serious
than the prick of a hypodermic needle. Nevertheless, the operator has
sometimes employed an anaesthetic even for this, and has in consequence been
reported to the Home Office for infringing the terms of his certificate.

Pawloff has truly said that the ideal experiment is one performed without
anaesthesia and without pain. In many cases this ideal can be realised, but
in other cases it is unattainable. Physiologists have, therefore, had to
select which of the two disturbing factors shall be absent, and they have
unhesitatingly chosen the