'The saving of human lives'.

  • Coleridge, Stephen, 1854-1936.
Date:
[1900?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: 'The saving of human lives'. 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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    X “THE SAVING OF HUMAN LIVES.” The Research Defence Society’s pamphlets do the cause of anti-vivisection almost as much service as do the speeches and signed letters of Mr. Stephen Paget. One of these pamphlets is entitled “ The Saving of Human Lives.” It is, of course, anonymous, like most of this ridiculous literature. Its first statement is as follows:— “Without Pasteur’s treatment, out of 3,127 persons bitten by animals judged to be rabid, 517 died from hydrophobia, that is I in 6.” No reference is given, no date is given, no place is given. So we begin by figures having no authority of any kind but the bald assertion of the silly anony- mous pamphleteer. These animals, of no time or place, were, we are told, “judged to be rabid.” Judged by whom? By vivisectors with serums to advertise ? By the silly anonymous pamphleteer? By Mr. Paget? By Lord Cromer? By Mr. Sydney Holland? Or by the hall porter at the Royal College of Physicians? The second statement condescends to date and place, but it alludes, like the first, to animals “ judged to be rabid ” by no one in particular. The third statement asserts that “ without anti- toxin, of every 100 children with diphtheria, 30 died;