The inquisition of science / by Mona Caird.

  • Caird, Mona.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The inquisition of science / by Mona Caird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    to be chosen from the fraternity of vivisectors or sup- porters of vivisectors. For, assuming that the visits (few or many) could effect their object by ensuring obedience to the Act, there is absolutely nothing that the Act forbids in the way of atrocious cruelty, provided only it be stated to be “ necessary ” for a particular purpose of research, and perpetrated under the proper combination of certificates. It would indeed argue black ingratitude, as well as extraordinary ingenuity, to break the provisions of this most affable Act. The inspector’s duty is to see that no animal is put to the torture under any but the correct certificate. Dr. Poore, who has lately resigned the post of inspector, makes no secret of his sympathy with the work of the vivisectors, which he had undertaken to inspect in the interests of the animals. In the Harveian Oration for 1899,* he speaks of the experimental method in medicine with great enthu- siasm. He says: “. . . . the joys of the successful investigator are, probably, the greatest which this world has to give.” He alludes to the opposition to vivisection with the usual high disdain of the pro-vivisector. “But, seeing,” he adds, “that many honoured members of our profession have themselves been vivisected by the envenomed tongues and sharp pens of a few noisy people,! it may be well to point out that no conviction for cruelty or breach of law has ever been obtained,f and that hearsay and the misinterpretation of * British Medical Journal, October 21st, 1899. t Dr. Poore does here seem to recognise that vivisection is a painful process ! X Dr. Poore does not seem to observe the humour of this situa- tion. Considering the views he is here expressing, it is difficult to see what likelihood there would be of a conviction for cruelty or breach of law, seeing that this would depend on his own report.