Vivisection, a heartless science / by Stephen Coleridge.

  • Coleridge, Stephen, 1854-1936.
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Vivisection, a heartless science / by Stephen Coleridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/262 (page 5)
    They seem to me to siifter, therefore, for no better purpose than to satisfy the vacant curiosity of irresponsible nursery-maids and badly educated children. Of all these cruelties to animals, extending from mere imprisonment up to the prolonged anguish inflicted upon otters, stags, foxes, and hares in the pursuit of them with hounds, very few have as yet been condemned by the law of this country, and I fear that it must be con¬ ceded that in the selection of such cruelties as have fallen under the prohibition of the law Parliament has displayed a class bias, comical and unblushing. A costermonger who drives his donkey to market with a sore neck, a cabman who uses a lame horse, a farmer who does the same, can all be prosecuted and punished, notwithstand¬ ing that the cruelty is inflicted by the animals’ owners for the reputable purpose of earning an honest living. But merely for amusement stags and otters may be subjected to prolonged, unspeakable anguish by confederations of the rich without any risk of infringing the law. The device invented to explain this striking- distinction enforced by Parliament—which is always composed largely of the said rich, and in which the student may search in vain for costermongers and cabmen- is to segregate