2.—“... _the quivering nerve_ ...”
M. Chauveau states that his object was ‘To ascertain the excitability of
the spinal marrow, and the convulsions and pain produced by that
excitability.’ His studies were made chiefly on horses and asses, who,
he says, ‘lend themselves marvellously thereto by the large volume of
their spinal marrow.’ M. Chauveau accordingly ‘consecrated eighty
subjects to his purpose.’ ‘The animal,’ he says, ‘is fixed upon a table.
An incision is made on its back about fourteen inches long; the vertebræ
are opened with the help of a chisel, mallet, and pincers, and the
spinal marrow is exposed.’ (No mention is made of anæsthetics, which of
course would nullify the experimenter’s object of studying “the
excitability of the spinal marrow, and the convulsions _and pain_
produced by that excitability.”) “M. Chauveau gives a large number of
his cases.... Case 7: ‘A vigorous mule. When one pricks the marrow near
the line of emergence of the sensitive nerves, the animal manifests the
most violent pain.’ Case 20: ‘An old white horse, lying on the litter,
unable to rise, but nevertheless very sensitive. At whatever points I
scratch the posterior cord I provoke signs of the most violent
suffering.’”—(_Journal de Physiologie_, du Dr. Brown-Séquard. Tome
Quatrième. No. XIII.)
4.—“... _living butchery with learned knife_.”
“We are told what Professor Brücke says with reference to section of the
trigeminus:—‘The first sign that the trigeminus is divided is a loud
piercing cry from the animal. Rabbits we know,’ he adds, ‘are not very
sensitive; all sorts of things may be done to them without making them
utter a cry; but in this operation, if it succeeds, they invariably send
forth a prolonged shriek.’”—“Lectures on Physiology,” Vol. II., p. 76.
5.—“... _cruel anodyne that chained the will_ ...”
It is dubious whether curare be even an anodyne, _i.e._ a deadener of
pain. M. Claude Bernard, himself a vivisector, says:—“Curare acting on
the nervous system only suppresses the action of the motor nerves,
leaving sensation intact. Curare is not an anæsthetic.” (_Revue
Scientifique_, 1871–2, p. 892.)
6.—“... _the shuddering victim conscious still_.”
“Everyone has heard of the dog, suffering under vivisection, who licked
the hand of the operator; this man, unless he had a heart of stone, must
have felt remorse to the last hour of his life.”—Darwin (“The Descent of
Man,” Part I., Chap. II.).
8.—“_Nor yields her holiest truths on such a murderer’s rack_.”
“It is fit to say here, once for all, that laws which govern the animal
kingdom below the human, can no more be accepted as final and
determining to man, in physiological, than in intellectual and moral,
action.... For neither the knife of the anatomist, nor the lens of the
microscopist, are infallible interpreters of function. We do not possess
ourselves of all of Nature’s secrets by cutting up her tissues and
fabrics, neither by the keenest inspection of their ultimate atoms,
whether fluid or solid. There are some truths withheld from the
investigator, however brave, patient, and nice his methods and means,
which are given up, in due time, to the truth-seer, without any method
or means, save the intuitive faculty and its unambitious, guileless
surrender to the service offered it. Such, it is at least possible, we
may find has been Nature’s dealing in this occult department.”—Eliza W.
Farnham (“Woman and Her Era,” Vol. I., pp. 47, 50).