The Reality of human vivisection : a review of a letter by William W. Keen, M.D., LL.D., late president of the American Medical Association.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Reality of human vivisection : a review of a letter by William W. Keen, M.D., LL.D., late president of the American Medical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    can never know, they were induced to grant it as a punish- ment for some trifling offense, and it produced the reaction looked for. Concerning this experiment Dr. Keen, of course, has a good word: I do not know what could have been more fortunate for this boy than the recognition in its incipiency of a disease previously unsuspected, and which, recog- nized thus early, should in all probability be cured by proper treatment. This tuberculin test is constantly employed to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in our cattle. In our children, it enables us to discover the same disease in an early, curable stage. Shall we care for our cattle better than our children? As an example of the art of false suggestion, this paragraph is a masterpiece. In the most dextrous manner possible the reader is invited to believe that what Schreiber intended as an experiment was very proper treatment ; that tuberculin, as a test for incipient consumption is as suitable for children as it is for cattle; that it is so regarded and so employed by the medical profession in their general practice; that to decline using it to discover consumption in an early, curable stage, is to care for our cattle better than our children. And yet every one of these deductions would be false. Dr. Keen knows perfectly well, in the first place, that phthisis, however early discovered, is not in all probability,^' a curable ailment. He knows that the tuberculin test, so often used upon apparently sound,and healthy cattle, is not sanctioned by the medical profession for use upon apparently sound and healthy children. He neglects to tell us, as a matter of no account, that of the three experiments made by Anders, one of the victims died six weeks afterwards. He knows that experi- ments like those of Schreiber, made upon apparently healthy children of poor consumptive mothers, he would not venture to repeat openly upon the apparently sound and healthy children of a consumptive mother in any family of wealth and influence in the city of Philadelphia; and that if such a test were made at all, it would be—as Schreiber made it—where persuasion counts, and ignorance veils results. And yet knowing all this, he has the supreme audacity to put a ques- tion implying the recognized use of tuberculin upon children who seem perfectly sound and well:—'■'■ Shall we care for our cattle better than for our childrenf