In memoriam Lord Shaftesbury.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In memoriam Lord Shaftesbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/50 (page 21)
    I watched attentively,” he went on, “ for the remainder of this and for the first fifteen days of the succeeding month.” The ferocious prolongation of suffering should again be observed. But to sum up, in the words of Dr. Walker, let them listen to a choice category of experimental recreations. “Forcing substances into the stomach of a dog after exposing the gullet, and tying it to prevent vomiting; opening the abdomen, tying a portion of the small intestine in two places, opening the inter¬ mediate portion, and injecting a noxious fluid into it; starving rabbits till they would eat dead frogs ; forcing boiling water into a dog’s stomach ; boiling frogs ; starving pigeons till they dropped from their perches, and then cutting of their anterior or pos¬ terior extremities to show that this caused death when the organism was exhausted from want of food.” Did man, from all this, walk in greater honour and greater security ? and was it not now clear to their Lordships that they ought to do some¬ thing to put a check upon such wild, wanton, and superfluous cruelties ? Now let them hear Dr. Acland, a very eminent physician—what did he say ? “ The number of persons in this and other countries who are becoming biologists without being medical men is very much increasing. Modern civilization seems to be set upon acquiring biological knowledge, and one of the consequences of this is, that, whereas medical men are constantly engaged in the study of anatomy and physiology for a humane purpose (that is, for the purpose of doing immediate good to mankind), there are a number of persons now who are engaged in the pursuit of these subjects for the purpose of acquiring abstract knowledge. That is quite a different thing. I am not at all sure that