[_Report of American Anti-vivisection Society, Jan. 1888._]
"There remain two grounds to adopt: one the total abolition of all
experiments; the other the total abolition of all _painful_
experiments. This latter position, which is the one that Dr. Bigelow
of Boston and Dr. Leffingwell have assumed, has engaged our attention
for a long time; but, after bestowing upon it careful consideration,
we feel that we must give it up as impracticable. To secure immunity
from pain there must be absolutely perfect anaesthesia. This can be
only obtained in two ways: one is by trusting to the experimenter
himself to give sufficient of the anaesthetic; the other to insist that
an assistant shall be present for the express purpose of keeping the
animal under perfect anaesthesia. Now is it anyway likely that either
of these conditions would be observed?"