omplaining whine at such treatment would be all the protest made,
and they would continue to lick the hand which bound them, till their
mouths were fixed in the gag, and they could only flap their tails in
the trough as the last means of exciting compassion. Often when
convulsed by the pain of their torture this would be renewed, and they
would be soothed instantly on receiving a few gentle pats. It was all
the aid and comfort I could give them, and I gave it often. They
seemed to take it as an earnest of fellow-feeling that would cause
their torture to come to an end--an end only brought by death.

"Were the feelings of experimental physiologists not blunted, they
could not long continue the practice of vivisection. They are always
ready to repudiate any implied want of tender feeling, but I must say
that they seldom show much pity; on the contrary, in practice they
frequently show the reverse. Hundreds of times I have seen, when an
animal writhed with pain and thereby deranged the tissues during a
delicate dissection, instead of being soothed, it would receive a slap
and an angry order to be quiet and behave itself. At other times,
when an animal had endured great pain for hours without struggling or
giving more than an occasional whine, instead of letting the poor
mangled wretch loose to crawl about the place in reserve for another
day's torture, it would receive pity so far that it would be said to
have behaved well enough to merit death, and as a reward would be
killed at once by breaking up the medulla with a needle, or `pithing,'
as this operation is called. I have often heard the professor say,
when one side of an animal had been so mangled and the tissues so
obscured by clotted blood that it was difficult to find the part
searched for, `Why don't you begin on the other side?' or `WHY DON'T
YOU TAKE ANOTHER DOG? WHAT IS THE USE OF BEING SO ECONOMICAL?' One of
the most revolting features in the laboratory was the custom of giving
an animal, on which the professor had completed his experiment, and
which had still some life left, to the assistants to practise the
finding of arteries, nerves, etc., in the living animal, or for
performing what are called `fundamental experiments' upon it--in other
words, repeating those which are recommended in the laboratory
handbooks.

"I am inclined to look upon anaesthetics as the greatest curse to
vivisectible animals. They alter too much the normal conditions of
life