We have seen that all these great advances in medicine and surgery have
been made as the result of experiments on living mammals, and you will
agree, I believe, that in all probability further advances in these
fields must be brought about by the same means. This is the opinion of
practically all eminent physicians and surgeons and veterinarians, and
of all the great scientists and educators in other fields――in short,
it is the opinion of all persons who have vast responsibilities for
the health of men and of animals. The only persons who are opposed to
these reasonable experiments are the antivivisectionists, who have no
such responsibilities. Would any sane person think of going to the
antivivisectionists for help if there were an epidemic of smallpox or
diphtheria, or if there were an outbreak of hog cholera or of blackleg
in cattle? We don’t go to them because they know nothing about such
matters. Yet they boldly contradict all competent authorities and
tell us that experiments on animals are useless, that they have never
accomplished anything. The antivivisection societies are composed
largely of well disposed but woefully misinformed persons. And those
who are responsible for the misinformation are the leaders of the
antivivisectionists. I have been studying these leaders for some years,
and I may say, without any danger of my statements being disproved,
that among them may be found many of the most dangerous of the
criminal insane to be found in this country today――and I have recently
visited some of our largest penitentiaries and asylums. I have found
some of these leaders of the antivivisection movement to be guilty of
falsehood, slander, libel, perjury, forgery, and attempted bribery.
Under false pretenses they obtain money from weakminded and unthinking
people and, with this money, they wilfully and perennially attempt
not only to prevent the advance of medicine and surgery, but also to
break down the bulwarks of preventive medicine by teaching contempt of
vaccination and of the use of antitoxins.
Few of the criminals in our jails are responsible for the deaths
of more than a small number of persons; few of them have attempted
widespread destruction of life. But it is the opinion of eminent
physicians that through the pernicious teachings of the antivivisection
leaders we shall in a few years have epidemics that will destroy the
lives of many thousands of children. Unless we wish for a return of
the plagues and pestilences that once devastated wide areas on this
world before the introduction of modern methods, we should use every
means in our power to discourage these dangerous fanatics. I believe
that it is the duty of all good citizens who belong to antivivisection
societies to send in their resignations at once, and to stand with
our government, our great physicians, surgeons, veterinarians,
agriculturalists, educators, and divines in approving and supporting
properly conducted animal experimentation and sane humane education
generally.
After the presentation of this paper by Mr. Baynes before the
American Society of Mammalogists, at its fifth annual meeting,
May 15 to 17, 1923, in the Academy of Natural Sciences,
Philadelphia, the Society unanimously passed these resolutions:
WHEREAS, It is a fact known to all thinking people that most of
the great advances in medicine and surgery have been made as a
result of experiments on living animals, especially mammals, and
WHEREAS, It is the belief of our eminent physicians, surgeons,
and veterinarians, and all others having great responsibility
for the health of human beings and of animals, that future
advances in these fields will be made chiefly as the result of
similar experiments, and
WHEREAS, It is known that these experiments almost invariably
are conducted humanely and with a minimum of discomfort to the
animals used, and
WHEREAS, There is an organized movement being carried on by
certain misinformed and misguided individuals who seek to
prevent or seriously interfere with such experiments, be it
_Resolved_, that we, members of the American Society of
Mammalogists, in annual convention assembled in the city
of Philadelphia, on the sixteenth day of May, 1923, are of
opinion that, in the best interests of real humanity, animal
experimentation, including vivisection, as practiced in our
laboratories today, should continue unhampered.