uipped in every
respect as are the graduates of American schools. The complete
refutation of all such misstatements regarding the effect of the
English law will be found elsewhere. The Act is far from being an
ideal law--it is capable of amendment in many respects--but it is an
evidence of the acceptance by the English people of the principle of
State regulation, and of their wish that between the will of the
vivisector and the irresponsible and unlimited torment of the victim,
there hall be some power capable, if it so desires, of making
effective intervention.

CHAPTER IX

THE GREAT PROTESTANT AGAINST VIVISECTION CRUELTY

Among the critics of unlimited vivisection one American name of the
present century stands pre-eminently above all others, not only for
emphasis of denunciation, for vigour of condemnation, for clear
distinctions between right and wrong, but also for the distinguished
position which the writer held. Forty years ago in the medical
profession of the United States no name stood higher than that of
Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, the professor of surgery in Harvard University.
To estimate the value of his criticism it is necessary to outline his
career.

He was born in Boston, March 11, 1818, his father being Dr. Jacob
Bigelow, one of the leading physicians of his day. After completing
his medical education in America, young Bigelow went abroad, and spent
nearly three years studying in the great hospitals of Paris. It was
at a period when the cruel vivisections of Magendie and his
contemporaries had become the scandal of civilization, and there can
be no doubt that Dr. Bigelow witnessed every phase of vivisection that
his sensibilities permitted him to observe.

Returning to Boston in 1844, the young surgeon rapidly attained a
prominent position. In January, 1846, before he had completed his
twenty-eighth year, he was appointed visiting surgeon of the
Massachusetts General Hospital. Here on November 7, 1846, there
occurred one of the greatest historic events--the first surgical
operation in which insensibility to pain was secured by the inhalation
of ether. Dr. Bigelow's enthusiasm for the new discovery was very
great, and it has been said that to him "the world was indebted for
the introduction of anaesthesia in surgery at the exact time in which
it occurred."

Dr. Bigelow was surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital from
1846 to 1886--a period of forty year