the right hand, the mutilation of
the body and limbs, the pouring of melted lead and other substances
into bleeding wounds. Terrible cries, "heard at a great distance,"
were induced; there were shrieks for pity; there were prayers to God
for strength to endure: "Mon Dieu, la force! la force! Seigneur mon
Dieu, ayez pitie de moi! Seigneur mon Dieu, donnez-moi la patience!"
Prayers for patience, for strength to suffer and endure--these his
only petitions in the supreme agony.

At last came the final act of the tragedy. Four young and vigorous
horses were attached, each to a seared and lacerated limb, and the
attempt was made to rend asunder the still living body. The horrible
spectacle lasted for more than an hour. Finally the surgeon and the
physician in attendance gave it as their opinion that complete
dismemberment could not be effected except afer a partial severance of
the limbs. The operation was performed, the horses were again
attached, and the fearful spectacle came to an end. Damiens
apparently preserved consciousness even after both legs and an arm had
been torn from his body. The remains were gathered and burnt on the
place of torment, and the noble lords and ladies who had gloated over
the scene returned to their homes. It is not at all improbable that
among those who witnessed the torments of Damiens in 1757 for an
assault upon a King's sacred person there were some who lived to see
Louis XVI. mount the scaffold in 1793.[1]

[1] See "Pie`ces Originales des Process fait a Robert Franc,ois
Damiens, Paris," 1757, vol. iii., pp. 379-409; and Perkin's "France
under Louis XV.," vol. ii., p. 87.

I have quoted at length three cases of judicial torture, occurring
among Christian nations, which were then in the front rank of modern
civilization. In Turkey and in Egypt, in India and in China, among
the savage Sioux and Iroquois of North America, the tragedies of
prolonged torment were more frequent, but not more horrible. But in
what way do such records of torture concern the abuses of vivisection?

For two reasons they are suggestive. Not infrequently it is intimated
that reports of cruelty by physiologists cannot be true: they are
merely "blood-curdling stories"; their horror makes the charge beyond
the possibility of belief. A physiologist cannot have been so cruel,
and yet have seemed so gentle, so benevolent, so mild. Here are
presented the records of torment inflicted upon human beings; torments