. As all human advancement depends upon the dissemination of
knowledge, it is difficult to see any objection, from the point of view
of justice, to the use of the lower creatures to accomplish this end.
The only real point in the matter is as to the effect of such scenes on
the minds of young people; yet they have to be accustomed to behold the
processes of destruction of life which are everywhere going on about
them. The gardener maintains his work by endless slaying. Our tables
bear the products of the slaughter-houses. While the anatomist's work
may be revolting, it is only so because his tasks are done deliberately
and for a purpose that is not yet properly appreciated.

It is a curious fact that many a person who enjoys hunting or fishing,
and who slays or maims with much pleasure and to no substantial profit,
is horrified to see a student dissecting a living frog, guinea-pig, or
cat, in order that he may learn new truths or himself behold what others
have discovered. Of the two aims, momentary pleasure or intellectual
profit, which is the nobler? In which work is the mind the most likely
to become careless as to the rights of the dumb beast? To my
understanding, the present turn of sympathetic people against
vivisection indicates that the movement of the emotions has, as is often
the case, been diverted from the fittest path. So far from natural
science tending in any way towards cruelty, it has been the very guide
in the development of the modern affection for living beings. By showing
something of the marvels of their structure and history, it has
increased in a way no other influence has ever done the conception which
we form as to their dignity and the wonderful nature of their history.
It is in the true interest of mercy to disseminate in every way we can
knowledge as to the real nature of animals, leaving this knowledge to
bring forth the good fruit which it ever bears. In this connection it
should moreover be said that the naturalist, like the surgeon,
instinctively seeks to make his work as little painful as may be to the
subjects of his experiments. In almost all cases, the animal is made
unconscious. Moreover, all we know of the life of the lower animals
leads us to suppose that while they suffer much as we do, their pains
are of a physical sort, and unassociated to any great extent with the
large fears and anticipations which in the case of man form so
considerable a part of his torment when in face of d