The influence of vivisection on human surgery / by Sampson Gamgee.

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of vivisection on human surgery / by Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    THE INFLUENCE OF VIVISECTION ON HUMAN SUKOERY. Mr. President and Oentlemen, So long as a Society supported by the Lord Chief Justice of England and other persons of distinction, is untiring in its efforts to su2^press vivisection, and to render amenable to criminal prosecution those who practise it, deep interest must attach to the question, what have scientific experiments on living animals done for the progress of Human Surgery ? I take for granted the purity of the intentions of those who so loudly denounce vivisection, and I intend no disrespect when I express a belief, that they would be a little more tolerant, if the extent and accuracy of their knowledge equalled the intensity of their zeal. The anti-vivisectionists have directed so large a share of their attention to our distinguished brethren, who cultivate science and benefit mankind by special devotion to physio- logical research, that there is some danger of these scientists monopolizing the honour of martyrdom. Since human surgery established any claim to be numbered amongst the sciences, its brightest ornaments and greatest practitioners, have been amongst the boldest and most indefatigable experimenters on living animals. Without such experiments Scientific Surgery could not have been founded, and its present humane and safe practise would have been impossible.