The first of the Essays following appeared in "SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY,"
in July, 1880; and immediately became honored by the attention of
the Medical Press throughout the country. The aggressive title of
the paper, justified, in great measure, perhaps, the vigor of the
criticism bestowed. Again and again the point was raised by reviewers
that the problem presented by the title, was not solved or answered
by the article itself.
At this day, it perhaps may be mentioned that the question--"Does
Vivisection Pay?" was never raised by the writer, who selected as his
title the single word "Vivisection." The more taking headline was
affixed by the editor of the magazine as more apt to arrest attention
and arouse professional pugnacity. That in this latter respect it was
eminently successful, the author had the best reason to remember. With
this explanation--which is made simply to prevent future criticism
on the same point--the old title is retained. If the present reader
continues the inquiry here presented, he will learn wherein the
writer believes in the utility of vivisection, and on the other hand,
in what respects and under what conditions he very seriously questions
whether any gains can possibly compensate the infinitely great cost.
"What do you hope for or expect as the result of agitation in regard
to vivisection?" recently inquired a friend; "its legal abolition?"
"Certainly not," was the reply.
"Would you then expect its restriction during the present century?"
"Hardly even so soon as that. It will take longer than a dozen years
to awaken recognition of any evil which touches neither the purse nor
personal comfort of an American citizen. All that can be hoped in the
immediate future is education. Action will perhaps follow when its
necessity is recognized generally; but not before."
For myself, I believe no permanent or effective reform of present
practices is probable until the Medical Profession generally concede
as dangerous and unnecessary that freedom of unlimited experimentation
in pain, which is claimed and practiced to-day. That legislative
reform is otherwise unattainable, one would hesitate to affirm; but it
assuredly would be vastly less effective. You must convince men of the
justice and reasonableness of a law before you can secure a willing
obedience. Yielding to none in loyalty to the science, and enthusiasm
for the Art of Healing, what standpoint may be taken by those of the
Medical Profession who desire to reform evils which confessedly exist?
I. We need not seek the total abolition of all experiments upon living
animals. I do not forget that just such abolition is energetically
demanded by a large number of earnest men and women, who have lost
all faith in the possibility of restricting an abuse, if it be favored
by scientific enthusiasm. "Let us take," they say, "the upright and
conscientious ground of refusing all compromise with sin and evil, and
maintaining our position unflinchingly, leave the rest to God."[A]
This is almost precisely the ground taken by the Prohibitionists
in national politics; it is the only ground one can occupy,
provided the taking of a glass of wine, or the performance of any
experiment,--painless or otherwise,--is of itself an "evil and a sin."
There are those, however, who believe it possible to oppose and
restrain intemperance by other methods than legislative prohibition.
So with the prohibition of vivisection. Admitting the abuses of the
practice, I cannot yet see that they are so intrinsic and essential
as to make necessary the entire abolition of all physiological
experiments whatsoever.
[A] Report of American Anti-Vivisection Society, Jan'y 30,
1888.
II. We may advocate (and I believe we should advocate)--_the total
abolition, by law, of all mutilating or destructive experiments upon
lower animals, involving pain, when such experiments are made for the
purpose of public or private demonstration of already known and
accepted physiological facts_.
This is the ground of compromise--unacceptable, as yet, to either
party. Nevertheless it is asking simply for those limitations and
restrictions which have always been conceded as prudent and fair by
the medical profession of Great Britain. Speaking of a certain
experiment upon the spinal nerves, Dr. M. Foster, of Cambridge
University, one of the leading physiological teachers of England,
says: "I have not performed it and have never seen it done," partly
because of horror at the pain necessary. And yet this experiment has
been performed before classes of young men and young women in the
Medical Schools of this country! Absolutely no legal restriction here
exists to the repetition, over and over again, of the most atrocious
tortures of Mantegazza, Bert and Schiff.
* * * * *
This is the vivisection which does not "pay,"--even if we dismiss
altogether from our calculation the interests of the animals
sacrificed to the demand for mnemonic aid. For the great and perilous
outcome of such methods will be--finally--an atrophy of the sense of
sympathy for human suffering. It is seen to-day in certain hospitals
in Europe. Can other result be expected to follow the deliberate
infliction of prolonged pain without other object than to see or
demonstrate what will happen therefrom? Will any assistance to memory,
counterweigh the annihilation or benumbing of the instinct of pity?
Upon this subject of utility of painful experiments in class
demonstrations or private study, I would like to appeal for judgment
to the physician of the future, who then shall review the experience
of the medical student of to-day. In his course of physiological
training, he or she may be invited to see living animals cut and
mutilated in various ways, eviscerated, poisoned, frozen, starved, and
by ingenious devices of science subjected to the exhibition of pain.
On the first occasion such a scene generally induces in the young man
or young woman a significant subjective phenomenon of physiological
interest; an involuntary, creeping, tremulous sense of horror emerges
into consciousness,--and is speedily repressed. "This feeling," he
whispers to himself, "is altogether unworthy the scientific spirit in
which I am now to be educated; it needs to be subdued. The sight of
this inarticulate agony, this prolonged anguish is not presented to me
for amusement. I must steel myself to witness it, to assist in it, for
the sake of the good I shall be helped thereby to accomplish, some
day, for suffering humanity."
Praiseworthy sentiments, these are, indeed. Are they founded in
reality? No. The student who thus conquers "squeamishness" will not
see one fact thus demonstrated at the cost of pain which was unknown
to science before; not one fact which he might not have been made to
remember without this demonstrative illustration; _not one
fact_--saddest truth of all--that is likely to be of the slightest
practical service to him or to her in the multiplied and various
duties of future professional life. Why, then, are they shown? To help
him to remember his lesson! Admit the value to the student, but what
of the cost?
In one of the great cities of China, I was shown, leaning against the
high wall of the execution ground, a rude, wooden frame-work or cross,
old, hacked, and smeared with recent blood-stains. It was used, I was
told, in the punishment of extreme offenses; the criminal being bound
thereto, and flayed and cut in every way human ingenuity could devise
for inflicting torture before giving an immediately mortal wound. Only
the week before, such an execution had taken place; the victim being a
woman who had poisoned her husband. A young and enthusiastic physician
whom I met, told me he had secured the privilege of being an eye
witness to the awful tragedy, that he might verify a theory he had
formed on the influence of pain; a theory perhaps like that which led
to Mantegazza's crucifixion of pregnant rabbits with _dolori
atrocissimi_.[A] Science here caught her profit from the punishment of
crime, but the gain would have been the same had her interest alone
been the object. There is _always_ gain, always some aid to
memory;--_but what of the cost?_
[A] See Appendix, page 83.
It cannot be expected that any Medical College, of its own accord and
without outside pressure, will restrict or hamper its freedom of
action. As a condition of prosperity and success it cannot show less
than is exhibited by other medical schools; it must keep abreast of
"advanced thought," and do and demonstrate in every way what its
rivals demonstrate and do. There can be no question but that there is
to-day a strong public demand for continental methods of physiological
instruction. Who make this demand? You, gentlemen, students of
medicine, and they who follow in your pathway. This year it is you
who silently request this aid to your memory of the physiological
statements of your text books; another year, another class of young
men and young women, occupying the same benches, or filling the same
laboratory, repeats the demand for the same series of illustrations.
You, perhaps, will have gone forward to take your places in active
life, to assume the real burdens of the medical profession. To those
succeeding years of thought, reflection and usefulness, let me
appeal, respecting the absolute necessity of all class demonstrations
and laboratory work involving pain. Postpone if you please, the ready
decision which, fresh from your class-room, you are perhaps only too
willing to give me to-day; I do not wish it. But some time in the
future, after years have gone by, remembering all you have seen and
aided in the doing, tell us if you can, exactly wherein you received,
in added potency for helping human suffering and for the treatment of
human ills, the equivalent of that awful expenditure of pain which you
are now demanding, and which by unprotesting acquiescence, you are
_to-day_ helping to inflict.
BOSTON, MASS.,
_March, 1889_.
[_From_ SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, _July, 1880_.]