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. ABERDEENSHIRE, land tenure in, | BABEk a fior. Terminat , 8620n opium 178 794-799 cultivation in Baden, Upper Chamber of, 56 for British Produce, 43-55 Bankrupts, our, what shall we do with them? 308-316 of wheat, 345 Bates (Mr.), his observations of ants, Baur (Professor F. C.), 92–93 Beaconsfield (Earl), a teacher of spiritual Becket, Archbishop, local associations of, 299 Belgian Senate, the, 57 247, 257, 258 Bovington (Miss L. S.), How to eat Bread, 341-356 the Hebrew books, 515 Blandford (Marquis of), Hereditary Rulers, 217-236 Blount (Martha), Pope's liking for, 850– 851 Board of Trade, proposed supervision of the Bankruptcy Court by the, 312–313 gymnastic exercises for children at, 86-89 Boileau and Pope, 830–855 Bookworm, an oid, Gossip of, 63-79, of our City Populations, 80–89 - ant, 254 BRA DUB Columbus'dream of the crusade, 719-722 Commons, House of, the Deadlock in the, 317-340 Compensation for Disturbance Bill, re- jection of, by the Peers, 188 Great Dream of the Crusade, 701-722 Confiscati?n and Compensation, 107–119 Coombe (William), writings of, 76 Corn, proposed duty on, 177, 180, 594- 595 Corn Inws, evils of the, 199 623-624 - effects of the abolition of the, 430 Cosmic Emotion, Pantheism and, 284- Cotton corner, the, 534-537 County Characteristics——Kent, 296-307 Croker (Crofton), his description of Sir 680 223 701-722 at Birmingham on the Irish Land Customs unions, 47 Bill, 107-108 ALLAM Tower, story of the herons vaccination of sheep for, 545-546 Danes' holes at East Tilbury, 307 DAL 6 of, 573-574 577-587 317-340 Africa, 448-454 Derby (Earl of), Ireland and the Land Desmond. eighth earl of, 660-661 Countess Catherine of, 679 Despair, a Dramatic Monologue, 629– 640 of Egypt, 276-283 Durer, Hubert de Burgh's defence of, 300 nection with the price of corn, 622 Dryden, poetry of, 833 timistic interpretation of Darwinism, 577-578 our, 80-89 DUF 6 ants, 250 EBRAR - GOL his letter relating to the Princess Olive of Cumberland '), 894 Fleeson (Captain), his observation of Fleury (Cardinal), his observation of ants, 256 Foliot (Bishop), his letter to Becket on Forster (Mr.), on the question of com- pensation for Irish landlords, 109 tion question, 942 in Evolution, 382–404 the suffrage in, 357–359 - conduct of elections in, 300-363 practices against rebels' in Ireland, 627 - legislation in, 326 the Administrative Machinery of, the Jews in, 497 stuff goods of, in English markets, 618-619 poetry of, 834-835 Fraser (Professor), on the vivisection Frederick the Great, anecdotes of, 418 letter of, to Gustavus III., 419 Freeman (Mr.) on the Jewish settle- French Revolution, analogies of the Irish land agitation to the, 786-791 Frere (Sir Bartle), The Scotch Land Question, 794-812 Carlyle, 1-42 Ralegh's Irish career, 661, 667 - his account of the massacre at 404 VAME laws in Scotland, 797 u Gaskell (Charles Milne), The Position of the Whigs, 901-912 Workman's View of, 430-447 Gavelkind, law of, 298 Germany, the Jewish question in, 509- Gibbon, historical method of, 91 Gilbert (Dr.), on the bread question, cline of the national wealth, 195 Gold, the Future of, 465–472 83 |
