Some facts as to the administration of the Act : (evidence before the Royal Commission).

  • Research Defence Society (Great Britain)
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some facts as to the administration of the Act : (evidence before the Royal Commission). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Some Facts as Before the Act of 1876 was passed,, .it isHprobable that some experiments were made, not in the laboratories of well-known institutions, but in private houses. Whether many experiments were thus made we do not know. On this point, Mr. Byrne, Principal Clerk in the Home Office, says . “ If there were, which (2 3°3> 3°3 is a very doubtful point, any considerable number of experi- ments going on in private houses and other unknown places, I should think the effect of the Act has been to abolish them entirely. It is impossible to believe that in thirty years, if unlicensed experiments were taking place, the Home Office and the police would not have heard of it—not one instance of it. I wish to bring out that matter before the Commission : that, as we have never heard of any case, it is very fair proof that they do not occur, because somebody would be sure to denounce them if they did occur.” Mr. Thane, the Inspector under the Act, giving evidence on 7 th November, 1906, says: “The only cases in which Q 3SC 3s6 private premises are registered for the performance of experi- ments are the pharmaceutical laboratories of Messrs. Wellcome & Co. and of Messrs. Brady & Martin, Limited, and the tract of heather at Frimley.” These “ private premises ” are used for the standardising of antitoxins and for the study of grouse disease. Also, experiments in unregistered places are allowed for the immediate study of outbreaks of infective disease among flocks and herds: that is to say, a few licensees are given a sort of roving commission to study outbreaks of infection in the only way in which they can be studied. Also, in three cases, within the last few years, leave was given for the study of “ caisson disease,” divers’ disease, at unregistered places, viz., the premises of a firm of diving engineers, and the bridge works at Newcastle-on-Tyne.