persons ready for the work. Whether it be a question of the nature of the rocks beneath us, or the composition of the ocean, or of vegetable life or of animal life, the method of inquiry is the same. The rocks are broken and put in the crucible, the water is submitted to analysis, the plant is dissected, and, in order to ascertain the laws which govern its growth and propagation, experiments are made by grafting and by cross fertilisation. In animal life the same method must be adopted to unlock the secrets of nature. The question of the animal being sensitive cannot alter the mode of investigation. It is, therefore, sheer folly and ignorance to stand in the path and forbid any one walking in the one right direction; it cannot be done. All that society should demand is that their rights and privileges should not be interfered with. I may not enter a man's garden to examine his plants, though my aim is a scientific one. I ought not to be allowed to dissect a dead body in my house to the annoyance of my neighbours-it would be a public scandal; and in the same spirit experiments should not be allowed on animals anywhere and by anybody. But when the public mind is appeased in these respects, perfect freedom should be given to the scientific investigator. He cannot but pursue one course, and no law can hinder him. Having alluded to the Anatomy Act, I may be allowed to add that public feeling has already put restraint enough on scientific and medical men. Our profession is unduly weighted; we are really, as Dr. Foster remarked, asked to make bricks without straw. It may not be in the knowledge of all, that, between forty and fifty years ago, there was so much scandal caused by the stealing of bodies for dissection that the present Anatomy Act was passed. This is a very stringent Act and most rigidly worked. Amongst other clauses it is obligatory that the body when dissected shall be buried. Consequently it is quite impossible to obtain a skeleton, and probably none has been made in England for many years. As a result of this, all the skeletons and bones for the use of students are obtained from abroad. When I was curator of the museum at Guy's Hospital, I paid about twenty pounds a year for French skeletons, and had sometimes difficulty in avoiding the duty on works of art. I would submit the case to the fair trader. It is clear, therefore, that if England had no communication with the Continent, a student here could not thoroughly learn anatomy. The English public is very exacting of the physician as regards his skill, and yet it forbids him the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of anatomy, and now the same public is endeavouring to stand in the way of his acquiring a knowledge of physiology and pathology. The ostensible reason offered for the suppression of vivisection is its cruelty;' but when it is objected that other forms of cruelty are unmolested, we are met by the answer that it is useless cruelty. If by useless is meant that it is unattended by scientific results, I leave the statement to the reader of the testimony above quoted from the foremost men of science. It must, therefore, be meant that all physiological knowledge is useless; and this I leave to the judgment of the medical profession, which has already been conclusively pronounced. The 'vivisection question' is a burning one, and the sooner it is settled in favour of science and humanity the better, for assuredly it must one day be so determined. The laws of human progress cannot be withstood by any human enactments. Moreover, if ignorant public opinion is kept alive to the question, so is instructed public opinion; for Harvey, the arch-vivisector, left it as an instruction to the College of Physicians, that once a year an oration should be delivered with the object of encouraging its members to search out the secrets of nature by way of experiment.' SAMUEL WILKS. INDEX TO VOL. X. The titles of articles are printed in italics. A ABE BRA BERDEENSHIRE, land tenure in, BABER (Mr.), report of, on opium 794-799 the farmers' agitation in, 800-810 849 Adler (Dr. Hermann), Recent Phases of Africa, North, France and, 448-454 dwelling of the, 271-273 - the true source of the national wealth, Alcock (Sir Rutherford), Opium and America, results of protection in, 164, - commercial produce of, 434-435 the Jews in, 498-499 small-pox epidemics in, 548-549 Anatomy Act, the, 947 726-734 Animals, differences between man and Annan, river, 1 Annornia arcens, an African species of Anthrax, a cattle plague, 544-545 Arab Monuments of Egypt, the, 276-283 Australia, commercial policy of, 50-51 cultivation in China, 862 Badcock (Mr.), his experiments in vac- Baden, Upper Chamber of, 56 Baptism in the English Church, 750-753 Bates (Mr.), his observations of ants, Baur (Professor F. C.), 92-93 Becket, Archbishop, local associations Belgian Senate, the, 57 Belt (Mr.), his observations of ants, Bevington (Miss L. S.), How to eat Bible, reading of the, with reference to - Jewish defence of the, 817-819 Bliss (Dr.), 899 Blount (Martha), Pope's liking for, 850- 851 Board of Trade, proposed supervision of Boileau and Pope, 830-855 Bolton, distress at, in 1836-40, 599, 624 Brabazon (Lord), Health and Physique Brain, nutrition of the, 347-348 Büchner, his observation of ants, 257 AIRO, modern, 279-280 ciples' of, 238 the 'Dis- Canada, commercial policy of, 50 Carlyle, Thomas, the Early Life of, 1–42 Carlyle a spiritual teacher, 870 Cathedrals, architecture of, 737-743 Cavendish, the buccaneer, death-bed Cerealine, a chemical principle of wheat, Chamber, Upper, functions of an, 231 Bankruptcy Bill of, 312 ' vaccination' of sheep for, 545–546 856-858 cultivation of the poppy in, 859-862 Church, Christian, institutions and Church of Christ, Unity in the, 120-130 City Populations, Health and Physique of Clark (Rev. H.), his observation of ants, Clere, Elizabeth, letter of, 412 Clifford (Sir Lewis de), mortuary in- (Professor), his advocacy of Dar- Clôture, need of a, in England, 326 nection with the price of corn, 622 Columbus'dream of the crusade, 719-722 Compensation for Disturbance Bill, re- Corn laws, evils of the, 199 periods of national distress under the, effects of the abolition of the, 430 Cotton corner, the, 534-537 County Characteristics-Kent, 296–307 Crown, British, limited power of the, Crusade, the Last Great Dream of the, Crusaders, Jewish abuse of the, 501-503 DALLAM Tower, story of the herons rooks at, 149 Danes' holes at East Tilbury, 307 Darwinism, optimistic interpreters of, Deadlock, the, in the House of Commons, De la Warr (Earl), France and North Denmark, Upper Chamber of, 57 Desmond. eighth earl of, 660–661 Countess Catherine of, 679 Dillon (Frank), The Arab Monuments Dover, Hubert de Burgh's defence of, 300 Dredging Ground, a, 131-141 Du Bois-Reymond (Professor), his op Edwards (Mr. E.), on the English Egypt, the Arab Monuments of, 276-283 Egypt, history of gold in, 463-464 spiritual aims of her writings, 870- Elliot (Rt. Hon. Hugh), his embassy at practical character of, 218 Established Church, the question of an, Europeans in the Egyptian service, 649- Evolution, theory of, 147 theories of life founded on, 575–587 Exports, British, during the last fifteen GOL Fitzstrathearn (or Strange Petrie), Fleeson (Captain), his observation of Fleury (Cardinal), his observation of Foliot (Bishop), his letter to Becket on Fowle (Rev. T. W.), Place of Revelation the suffrage in, 357–359 – legislation in, 326 commercial treaty with, 445-446 stuff goods of, in English markets, YAME laws in Scotland, 797 Garfield, President, 236-244 Gaskell (Charles Milne), The Position Gavelkind, law of, 298 Germany, the Jewish question in, 509– Gibbon, historical method of, 91 Gladstone (Rt. Hon. W. E.) on the de- |