Evidence of Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, Wednesday, 24th July, 1907.

  • Moulton, John Fletcher Moulton, 1st baron, 1844-1921.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Evidence of Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, Wednesday, 24th July, 1907. 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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    auimals where you have no specific disease in view ?— Yes. Many will think me a heretic on this point, but 1 have a strong view that, when you have once realised that experiment is the right way to acquire the necessary knowledge, it is a bad thing to work too directly and too consciously for practical results. 12718. When you call that a heresy, of whom arc you speaking as the orthodox ?—Most people say that you should only make such experiments with the direct view of some practical application for the benefit of mankind. 12719. We have had a good many witnesses before us who take what you call the heretical view.—I am delighted to find that I am not alone. 12720. As well as those who take the other view; and others who would say that you do not go far enough.—I am glad to find that I have got my comrades. You must not misunderstand me. I think that the object and the reward and the ultimate justifi- cation of research is the benefit it confers. But what 1 wish to urge is, that it is unwholesome to keep that before your mind when you are working, at all events in the earlier stages. May I give a parallel which I think explains and justifies this view? I take the history of alchemy. For centuries men of the highest intellectual attainments—for there can be no doubt of the ability of the men who worked at these subjects— worked hard at the transmutation of metals, and the result of those centuries has only been snippets of knowledge, if I might use such a phrase. I do not under- value them ; they gave us, I believe, some very valuable reagents, but that is practically all. And the reason was that they did not commence by working so as to get to