SUBMITTED BY THE ILLINOIS A NTI-VIVI SECTION SOCIETY. AURORA. ILL A Living Dog Bound Down for Experimentation From La Plii/nioloyic Opevatoirr.—Clajtde Bernard. “INHUMAN DEVILS.” Canon Wifberforce on Vivisection. Curare—a drug which paralyses the motor nerves while sensibility acutely remains. • You may take it for granted that experiments, when not otherwise described, are performed on ourarized dogs, and are accompanied by the most atrocious suffering which the imagination of man can conceive.’’—Ci.audk Bernard, "The Prince o'- Yivisectors " The following correspondence, aris- ing- out of the annual meeting and proceedings of the Victoria Street So- ciety, London, was reported in the Zo- ophilist. at the time: 40, Wimpole Street, W.. June 23,1892. Sir—Tn the Times of to-day appears an account of the annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of Animals from Vivisection. It is there stated that in movii g the adoption of the re- port you characterized vivisectors as "human devils.” if this be a correct version of the words you employed you have placed yourself under an obliga- tion either to substantiate or to with- draw and apologise for this expression. By vivisectors can only be meant the class of physiological investigators en- gaged in experimentation upon animals. These investigators are convinced of the necessity of experimentation, not only for the advancement of medical science but for elucidation of the phe- nomena of Nature upon which human progress depends. In this conviction physiologists are supported by the highest intellect* of the world, includ- ing. with scarcely an exception, the great mass of scientific experts who are alone fully qualified to form a correct judgment in such a matter. The cultivation of science, as it is pursued by the physiological investiga- tor. demands the utmost devotion and willingness to endure self-sacrifice. The one aim must be to elicit truth for truth’s sake: such labor is very seldom in any worldly sense remunerative, and rarely gains either applause or popu- larity. Those who have the privilege of the friendship of practical physiolo- gists, and are best able to estimate their individual worth, must feel deep indignation to find men among the se- lect few in modern society that lead, in every sense of the word, noble lives, stigmatised in the terms you are stated to have employed. Those terms are uncharitable, unjust a n d libellous. Their spirit is entirely opposed to the teaching of Christianity and of that Church in which you hold so distin- guished a position. I am. Sir, yours faithfully. HENRY SEWILL. To the Rev. Canon Wilberforce. Deanery, Southampton. June 27th. 1892. Sir: The quotation from The Times to which you refer, consisting of two words only, is obviously a most unfair report of an entire speech. L did not say. in that indiscriminate manner, that all persons who practiced vivisection were “inhuman devils.” I am aware that many apparently succeed in escaping moral contamination from the atrocious deeds they do in the name of science, and I am prepared to take your word for it that persons capable of inflicting ex- cruciating tortures upon helpless ani- mals live in other respects''noble lives." Idid say. and I implialically rcilrmlr i 1. that persons who were capable of doing certain deeds, which I cnumemled, such, for example, as leaving a dog crucified to a torture-trough, kept alive by arti- ficial respiration, in agony unspeakable, throughout the long hours of the night, and sometimes from a Saturday to a Monday, while they themselves retire to the rest and comfort of their own homes, ho; ingtoiind their subject alive for further experimentation upon their return to the laboratory, were acting as “inhuman devils." 1 do not stand alone in the opinion. The Rev. Dr. Haughton (Question 1888. Royal Com- mission. 187(5) said: I would shrink with horror from accustoming large classes of young men to the sight of animals under vivisection Science would gain nothing and the world would have let loose upon U,mmJ devils." You say that the spirit of my state- ment is “entirely opposed to the teach- ing of Christianity, &c.” 1 reply that the so-called “cultivation of science." as it is practiced by the physiological investigators, “is entirely opposed to the teaching of Christianity,” is based upon the rankest materialis n, and ap- peals to the lowest instincts of man: and as to “the Church in which I hold a position, &c.,” I thank God that some of it s most eminent representatives have organized within it a league for the “total abolition of the practice of vivi- section.” And the Bishop of Manches- ter. himself no tyro in science, preach- ing on behalf of this league, exposes himself to your “deep in iignation.” for he, too, stigmatises vivisectors as men* “who use God’s dumb creatures as the subject of tortures which could only be called diabolical, and who gain their knowledge by the degradation of their moral character,” and with these senti- ments I cordially agree. sV.Our contention is that the public has been blinded by scientific dust thrown into its eyes, and that multitudes are wholly unaware of the unspeakable and fiendish cruelties that are perpetrated in the name of science. / The public is taught to believe that vivisections are rare, that animals sub- jected to them are under anaesthetics, and that the discoveries made by the process are of infinite value. The pub- lic has not realized that three thousand doctors signed a memorial declaring that an important series of experiments could not he carried through while ani- mals are under anaesthetics, that the arch-vivisector, Schiff. has been honest enough to say, “It is nothing but hypoc- risy to wish to impose on oneself and others the belief that the curarised an- imal does not feel pain.” C Let us glance at some of the so-called "experiments,’’and judge whether men endowed with ordinary sensibilities and imaginations could perform them w i t h o u t temporarily transforming themselves into "inhuman devils". . . . . . They include baking, freezing, burning, pouring boiling oil on living animals, saturating them with inflam- mable oil and setting them on fire, starving to death, skinning alive, cut- ting off the breasts while giving milk. . gouging out the eyes, larding the feet with nails, forcing broken glass into ears, intestines and muscles, making in- cisions in the skull and twisting about a bent needle in the brain, &c. & *. (vide The Nine Circles, Swan Sonnet)schien & Co.. Paternoster Square, in which chap- ter and verse are given for every exper- iment described and a careful perusal l of which will provide abundant justifi- I cation for the expression of which you j complain). I One of these "practical physiolo- gists.” whom you estimate so highly,' desired recently to ascertain whether it was possible to pour molten lead into a man’s ear when drunk without caus- ing him to shriek. For this purpose he procured several dogs, and the report says, ‘‘he administered an anaesthetic composed of a solution of chloral and morphine to reduce the dog to the sup- posed condition of a drunken man. In spite of this precaution it appears that when the molten metal penetrated the ear of one of the animals, accompanied by a frizzling-sound, the wretched beast struggled violently, and its howls were so dreadful that even the gar cons du lab- oratories accustomed as they are to pain- ful spectacles, were strongly affected.” The second dog, though similarly an- aesthetised, w a s so horribly tortured that it actually burst the thongs that bound it to the torture-troubg. Again could anyone but an “inhu- man devil,” perform the following: "S* “At the late Medical Congress, liekM in Berlin, a Chicago Professor performed. before the assembled doctors, some ex- periments upon a dog. A French journal, in describing it, says that the Professor roared out, 'Hand me over that dog.’ The unfortunate animal was brought into the room carefully muz- zled. and with its legs tied down. The Professor then proceeded to pump the poor beast full of sulphurretted hydro- gen gas. 'Now, gentlemen.’ he shout- ed, ‘The gas will issue from his mouth in a stream, and I will set fire to it.’ A lighted match was set to the dog’s mouth with no result; a second, a whole box full, and nothing came out of it but burning the hair on the dog’s jaws.” “Then came the second part of the ex- periment. ‘Now, gentlemen,’ said the Professor, ‘von will see the effect when the gas has been pumped into the bow- els when they have bean wounded.’ He then produced a loaded revolver and fired a bullet into the wretched animal's abdomen. The dog yelled piteously, and the bleed- ing creature was subjected to a repeti- tion of the gas injection. The rest of the story was to > horrible t > tell even in the pages of an English Medical Journal.”—Philadelphia Ledger. ‘De- cember Kith 1891). The list of Dr. Brown-S ‘quard’s and M. Chauveau's experiments on the spi- nal marrow is too terrible to describe in extenso. The following will serve as a sample: “To ascertain the excitability of the spinal marrow and the convulsions and pain produced by that excitability. The studies were made chiefly on horses and and asses who, he says, • lend them- selves marvelously thereto by the large volume of spinal marrow.’ M. Chau- veau accordingly “c msec rated 80 sub- jects to his purpose.” "The animal." he says, “is fixed on a table. An in- cision is made in its back of from 30 to 35 centimetres: the vertebrae are opened with the help of a chisel, mallet, and pincers, and the spinal marrow is ex- posed.” Several experiments similar to the foregoing- are described. In some the spinal marrow was burnt through with red hot wire. The electrical stimula- tion was increased. The spinal marrow tetanised (i. e. convulsed) during three minutes. The vagus several times stim- ulated. The operations on the rabbit ex- tended over eleven days. The wound in the back had suppurated, and the stim- ulation of the exposed nerves was adde 1 to by electrodes Deing fastened to each hind leg causing tetanus (i. e. convul- sions) of the back extremities.—Pfiu yer's Archives, 1883, pp. 303 et scy. Again, “fifty-one dogs had portions of the brain hemisphere washed out of the head, which had been pierced in several places. This was repeated four times; the mutilated creatures and their behaviour havina been studied for memths. Most of the animals died at last of in- flammation of the brain.” (p. 415). •‘In- teresting experiment" on delicately formed little bitch. Left side of brain extracted: wire pincers on the hind feet. Doleful whining; the little animal be- gan again to howl pite msly: soon after- ward foamed at the mouth (p. 417). The same dog last operated upon on the 15th of October; since then blind; died on November 10. “The dissected brain resembles a lately-hoed potato lieldv(p. 418.) Little bitch last operated upon on the 26th, May. and made nearly blind: died on the 27th July.” Do you imagine that 1 should consider myself under an obligation to apologize for stigmatizing the dastardly perpetra- tor of the following abomination, an “inhuman devil 8” Prof. Goltz says that it was “marvel- ous and astonishing" to find that a dog that had served for some seven experi- ments, and whose hind quarters were completely paralyzed, and whoso spinal marrow had been destroyed, the animal suffering besides from fatal peritonitis, was still capable of maternal feelings for its young. "She unceasingly licked the living and the dead puppy, and treated the living puppy with the same tenderness as an uninjured dog might do.”—Pfluger’s Archives. Vol.IX, p. 5(44 ) I contend that the language does not exist in which it would be possible to be "uncharitable, unjust, and libellous.” in speaking of such "a labor to elicit truth for truth’s sak s. ” For Paul Bert's reports of his disgust- ing experiments of amputating the breasts of a goat an 1 other animals, see Cnmp'ss de la Soclete de Biologic l Paris, 1883, p. 193). "I wrote,” he says, “to communicate to lire Society the results that I have ob- tained by the ablation i.f mammae in an- imals. Dogs and rabbits with their six or’eight mamma; are unable to survive these “experiments.”- 1 certainly do not envy you ••the priv- ilege of the friendship of practical phys- iologists,” such as the e. Perhaps you will say that these ex- periments were performed by foreign- ers, and not by the “select ft w in mod- ern society that lea l, in every sense of the word, noble lives.” Then let me refer you to the report of the Royal Hu- mane Society, 18(55, pp. 31—(5(5. for an English experiment, which is only one out of thousands. “Experiment 19. A terrier was de- prived of air by plunging its head into liquid plaster-of-Pam: respiratory ef- f n ts commenced at one minute thirty- five seconds, and ceased at four minutes, the heart beating till five minutes. On examining the lungs the white plaster was foun l throughout the bronchial tubes.” Seventy-six of these experiments were made. —Report of die Royal Humane Society, 18(55. pp. 31—(5(5. And the following: Dr. Angel Mom/ reported a series of experiments, in which he irritated the brains and intes- tines of a number of “anaesthetised, cur- arised animals" by electricity, sliced away their brains, and made “windows” in their bowels.—British Medical Jour- nal, August 4th, 1883. Dr. Bradford, of University College, London, has mutilated the kidneys of dogs. Firstly, he removed a portion of one kidney, which operation must nec- essarily be of an exceedingly painful nature. At intervals, varying from a fortnight to six weeks, the entire other kidney was also removed, thus leaving the animal with only a portion of kid- ney. After the second operation the animal became emaciated and died at a period varying according to the rem- nant of kidney remaining. Sometimes the dogs lived a fortnight, sometimes six weeks.— Proceedings of Physiological Society, March 21, 1891. The following quotation from Mr. R. T. Reed’s speech in the house of Com- mons, April 4, 1883, refers to English Experiments: “I will take one instance from certain experiments performed by Professor Rutherford, and reported in the British Medical Journal. 1 refer to the series of experiments commenced December 14, 1878. These experiments were thirty-one in number; no doubt there were hundreds of dogs sacrificed upon other series of experiments, but I now am only referring to one set be- ginning as 1 say on the 14th of Decem- ber, 1878. There were in this set thirty- one experiments, but no doubt many more than thirty-one dogs were sacri- ficed. All were performed on dogs, and the nature of them was this: The dogs were starved for many hours. They were then fastened down, the abdomen was cut open; the bile duct was dissected out and cut; a glass tube was tied into the bile duct and brought outside the body. The duct leading to the gall- bladder was then closed by a clamp, and various drugs were placed into the in- testine at its upper part. The result of these experiments was simple/ nothing at all—I mean it led to no increase of knowledge whatever, and no one can be astonished at that, because these wretched beasts were placed in such circumstances—their condition was so abnormal—that the ordinary and uni- versally recognized effect of well-known drugs was not produced. These experi- ments were performed without nnmsthetics The animals were experimented upon under the influence of a drug called curare.” And now. Sir, what "phenomena of Nature upon which human progress de- pends" have been elucidated by these brutal and degrading tortures ? What victory over disease can your “scien- tific experts," who you say "are alone fully qualified to form a correct .judg- ment in such a matter.’’ point to as the result of vivisection ? Can they cure cancer, consumption, scrofula, lupus? Is it not a fact that the boasted discov- eries of one year are the ludibrium of the next ? In spite of the unspeakably cruel experiments of Professor Perrier, your "seientilic experts" do not even yet know the true function of the cere- bellum, and the experiments of one physiologist are often pronounced by another to be utterly useless. Harvey testified himself that the discovi ry of the circulation of the blood was due to anatomy, anci not to vivisection. Some of the most skilful living operators have told me that their skill was at- tained by dissection of the cadaver and not by vivisection. Sir Thomas Wat- son told me himself that it was con- stantly necessary to unlearn at the bed- side the lessons taught in the labora* tory. Alajendie s holocaust of victims resulted in disastrous failure when his conclusions were tested on the human body. What has humanity gained from the unparalleled cruelties of Koch, who is compelled to keep a special ctema- torium to dispose of the corpses of his victims; or from the so-called discover- ies of Pasteur, who has apparently suc- ceeded in producing a new form of dis- ease. rabies paralysis! The report signed by Sir J. Paget. Sir J. Lister, Dr. Bur- don Sanderson, and others, informs us that “under the intensive method deaths have occurred under conditions which have suggested that they were due to the inoculations rather than to -in fic- tion from rabid animals." At Milan three men died of rabies alter treat- ment at the Instituto liobieo. and the dog by which they were bitten was declared by Professor Pasteur himself not to hart been rabid. PruloSsor Peter says. **M. Pasteur does not cure rabies, he gives it." And in the 1 'hues (November hi. lhSS) I read that “in the case of one man sent over to Paris from this country there is reason to believe that the hy- drophobia from which he died was rather the result of his inoculation than of the original bite." \ ou say "the investigators are con- vinced of the necessity of such experi- mentation. ' I reply that an increas- ing number of intelligent Englishmen, undeterred by what has been well termed (l believe by the late Lord Shaftesbury) “tne insolence cf physio- logical science."are convinced of the iniquity, the uselessness, and the peril to the human race of such experimenta- tion. and they are determined to do their utmost to render the practice, in this country, at least, wholly illegal. 1 am. Sir. yours faithfully, Basil Wilherfokce. (.Canon of Westminster. ) Vivisection is practiced all over the United States in Pol leges and Universi- ties and in many schools of Children and Youth. It will he readily seen by the following record from the experimenters’ published reports that anaesthetics are frequently not used—Curare not being an anaesthetic. Dr. A. M. Phelps, of New York, twisted and bound the legs of dogs in unnatural positions; forced the leg of one dog over its back, binding it, and scaling it in plaster-of-paris; kept it thus 145 days. The above illustration is an exact copy of the drawing accompanying the article written by Dr. Phelps and published in “Laboratory Researches.” They who know the pain of a limb even a short time in a cramped position can imagine the sufferings of this dog. AMERICAN VIVISECTIONS. ABBREVIATED FROM “EXPERIMENTERS’” OWN PUBLISHED REPORTS From “Nine Circles,” Which Gives its Authority in Every Instance. P. 15. Drs.Bowditch and Warren of Harvard Medical School. Operations on cats. Sciatic nerve divided. Curare given. Concerning these operations on the spinal cord the Text Book of Hu- man Physiology says. “Rabbits shriek at the slightest touch.” This cry in an animal that under ordinary circum- stances seldom emits a sound, is signifi- cant, and no further proof is necessary as to the suffering inflicted. P. 18. William Halstead of New York tried “circular suture” experi- ments, opening the abdomen, drawing out a portion of the intestine which is Dr. C. F. Hodge of Clark Univer- sity. Worcester, Mass., in his book, “A Microscopical Study of Changes," etc. (18 )2). gives the details of mutilation of a very large number of cats and frogs, in which curare was administered and sciatic nerve stimulated with electricity from thirty minutes to seven hours. At one time “five gray kittens six or eight months old were used.” and were made to fast from eleven to thirty hours before his operations began, and “stim- ulation was continued for five hours in each case.” P. 133. sewn in a loop and placed in the abdom inal cavity. ••Some German' experi- ments were not considered successful on account of small size of tlogs and inabil- ity to bear the suffering.” (1890). P. 24. Dr. Walter Mendelsohn of New York, placed curarized dogs in heated boxes “to ascertain the functions of the liver in fever.” P. 20. Dr. Leo Breisacher of Detroit, Mich., extirpated (cut out) the thyroid glands of thirty dogs and minutely de- scribes their consequent sufferings. P. 4fi. Harold G. Ernst of the Medi- cal School of Harvard University, Cam- bridge, Mass., repeats Pasteur’s melan- choly experiments with rabies on thirty- two rabbits with a description of their terrible sufferings. P. 01. Dr. Pollitzer of New York, discourses on the * ’Action of Peptones” injected into dogs, which induces "marked manifestations of pain and dis- tress.” P. 75. Dr. H. Sewall, University of Michigan, experiments on pigeons with rattlesnake venom. The birds die in “clonic convulsions.” P. 78. £t. H. Chittenden of Yale University) “tested the effects of alco- hol on dogs, confining them in cages. To one animal thus confined twenty- eight days “alcohol was administered ten days. ” (1891). P. 100. Dr. Councilman of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, excites inflammation in the eyes of frogs and cats by passing a thread through the cornea and applying croton oil, silver nitrate, caustic potassa and hot irons! Prof. Austin Flint of New York in his Text Book of Physiology says; We have ourselves frequently exposed and irri- tated the roots of nerves in dogs in pub- lic demonstration.” Dr. B. A. Watson of Jersey City, in his book describes experiments upon 141 dogs that he “hoppled,” raised to a neight of 24 feet and dropped upon ridges of iron. The backs of some were broken. Some of the dogs lived only a few hours and others for days in terrible suffering. (Sept. 1890.) This he called “Traumatism.” This same Dr. Phelps attempted to graft the leg of a living dog upon that of the shorteiuul leg of a boy, in the New York Charity Hospital (1892). The suffering of this dog. a small span- iel. were largelv commented upon at the time. Its fore leg was mutilated and fastened to the limb of the boy. The dog was encased in solid plaster dress- ing' so he could only move head and tail; the vocal cords were cut, so he could only “moan pitifully.” The ■•experi- ment” was not successful. Both boy and dog were subjected to a season of severe and needless suffering. The following was taken from an article in The New York World, Peb. 21,1892. The eyewitness of the experimentation at the veterinary department of the University of Pennsylvania is a compe- tent judge as well as a person of vera- city, and says that he was ushered into a room with windows far above the ground, to debar the curious from look- ing in. The door was unlocked to permit him to enter, and locked again when he was within. He supposed there was to be a regular examination of students, but to his surprise found there were to be experiments of a most revolting de- scription. A horse was before him, tied with a halter. The first pupil was told tc drive a seton into the shoulder of the horse, a most painful operation; the second was asked to perform tracheot- omy—making an opening into the windpipe—and a third to drive a setor into the hind Hank. By this time the horse had been ‘'hobbled.'' that is, sc tied that he could not move, and the next student was told to dissect the various nerves of the foot. No ANAES- THETIC OP ANY DESCRIPTION WAS GIVEN TO THE HORSE, and when the demonstrations were finished and the professor was asked by the visitor wha' would bo done with the animal, ho re- plied: “We leave it here, and if it it alive in the morning we go on with othei experimentations. ” Prof. Zuill the operator was a gradu ate of Aifort, near Pari.-: and at thii and similar institutions, as many a twelve horses are operated upon eacl week, and if the horses live to enduri them, sixty-four are performed on each When Prof. Zuill's experimentatioi was reported (by the well-known voter inary surgeon, Dr. Gadsden.) to tin Philadelphia Society for the Preven tion of Cruelty to Animals, it was foum that there was no law that would wai rant his arrest. Published by the Illinois Anti-Vivisection Society, Aurora,111. Anti-Vivisection Print.