[Gutenberg 42660] • Experiments on Animals

Experiments on Animals, by Stephen Paget.

EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS BY STEPHEN PAGET

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LORD LISTER

THIRD AND REVISED EDITION

"Perhaps it is wrong to compare sin with sin, but I declare to you, the more I think of it, the more intimately does this Prejudice seem to me to corrupt the soul, even beyond those sins which are commonly called more deadly."—Cardinal Newman.

NEW YORK

WILLIAM WOOD AND COMPANY

MDCCCCVII

TO CHARLES ALFRED BALLANCE M.S., F.R.C.S.

AND WILLIAM HUNTER M.D., F.R.C.P.

PREFACE

The first edition of this book was published in 1900. For twelve years it had been my business, as Secretary to the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by Research, to know something about experiments on animals, and to follow the working of the Act of 1876; and to give facts and references to a very large number of applicants. Believing that an account of these experiments, and of the conditions imposed on them by the Act, might serve a useful purpose, I proposed to the Council of the Association that I should write a book on the subject. The Council accepted this proposal; and decided that the book should be written for general reading, that it should not be anonymous, and that it should be published without reserve.

It was, of course, a doubtful and embarrassing task. But, from twelve years' experience of the things said by the chief opponents of all experiments on animals, I knew that there was only one way of doing it—to give the original authorities, the plain facts, the very words, chapter and verse for everything.

Among those who kindly revised the proofs were Prof. Rose Bradford and Prof. Starling, who revised Part I.; Mr. Shattock, who revised Part II.; and Prof. Schäfer. Valuable help was given by Mr. R. H. Clarke, Sir Victor Horsley, Dr. Beevor, Prof. Ronald Ross, and the late Dr. Washbourn; and I was allowed to make free use of Mr. George Pernet's careful researches into the history of the subject. Lord Lister himself did me the honour to read and correct, with the utmost patience, Parts I. and II.

In the second edition (1904) some mistakes were corrected, and some facts were added.

The present edition has been thoroughly revised; and I have included in it a reprint, with some changes and omissions, of a pamphlet, The Case against Anti-vivisection, which I wrote in 1904.

1906.

TO THE FIRST EDITION

This work by Mr. Paget is entirely a labour of love. Not being himself engaged in researches involving experiments upon the lower animals, he is not directly interested in the subject. But, in his official capacity as Secretary (1887-1899) to the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by Research, he has become widely conversant with such investigations, and has been deeply impressed with the greatness of the benefits which they have conferred upon mankind, and the grievous mistake that is made by those who desire to suppress them.

The action of these well-meaning persons is based upon ignorance. They allow that man is permitted to inflict pain upon the lower animals when some substantial advantage is to be gained; but they deny that any good has ever resulted from the researches which they condemn.

How far such statements are from the truth will be evident to those who peruse this book. Its earlier pages deal with Physiology, the main basis of all sound medicine and surgery. The examples given in this department are not numerous; they are, however, sufficiently striking, as indications that, from the discovery of the circulation of the blood onwards, our knowledge of healthy animal function has been mainly derived from experiments on animals.

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CONTENTS.

PART I. EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSIOLOGY

I. The Blood

II. The Lacteals

III.