, and there is no doubt it is the same with a
Lecturer on Physiology. Some persons seem to regard the advance of
knowledge as the whole duty of man, and they would perhaps consider
experimentation as justifiable in the one case as in the other. We
cannot so regard it, for the simple and sufficient reason (as it seems
to us) that the element of Life and Sensibility being present in the
one case and not in the other, carries a responsibility with it. We
contend that in any case where certain phenomena are known to follow a
given experiment, when the fact has been established by the separate
and independent observation of many different persons, a lecturer is
not justified in resorting to it FOR THE PURPOSE OF MERE DEMONSTRATION
WHERE ITS PERFORMANCE INVOLVES SUFFERING TO THE ANIMAL."[1]

[1] The London Lancet, February 6, 1875.

It is an instructive and interesting fact that one of the first steps
toward the legal regulation of vivisection in England was taken by
scientific men. The Lancet of May 8, 1875, contains the following
paragraph:

"Some eminent naturalists and physiologists, including Mr. Charles
Darwin, Professor Huxley, Dr. Sharpey, and others, have been in
communication with Members of both Houses of Parliament to arrange
terms of a Bill which would prevent any unnecessary cruelty or abuse
in experiments made on living animals for purposes of scientific
discovery. It is understood that these negotiations have been
successful, and that the Bill is likely to be taken charge of by Lord
Cardwell in the House of Lords, and by Dr. Lyon Playfair in the House
of Commons."

A week later, the Lancet gives an outline of the proposed Act:

"The Bill introduced by Dr. Lyon Playfair, Mr. Spencer Walpole, and
Mr. Evelyn Ashley, `To Prevent Abuse and Cruelty in Experiments on
Animals, made for the Purpose of Scientific Discovery,' has been
printed. It proposes to enact that painful experiments on living
animals for scientific purposes shall be permissible on the following
conditions:

"`That the animal shall first have been made insensible by the
administration of anaesthetics or otherwise, during the whole course
of such experiment; and that if the nature of the experiment be such
as to seriously injure the animal, so as to cause it after-suffering,
the animal shall be killed immediately on the termination of the
experiment.

"`Experiments without the use of anaesthetics are also to be
permissible provided th