f these investigations a little
closely. The question for us is not whether anaesthetics were
employed, but to what extent we may find ourselves assured regarding
their efficiency in abolishing sensibility in every case.

The experiments in question were of a peculiar kind. They differ in
certain respects from anything to be found in the records of American
vivisection. The number of dogs sacrificed--148--was far greater than
seems necessary to establish any working hypothesis. It would appear
that the methods of vivisection selected were generally designed for
the purpose of making the strongest possible impression, and, if
consciousness was present, the sharpest pangs that human ingenuity
could invent were repeatedly inflicted. The most sensitive parts of
the body were crushed in various ways. The lungs were stabbed, or
shot through; the intestines were lifted from the body, and burned or
placed in boiling water; the nerves were exposed and scraped; loops of
intestines were manipulated or crushed; the ear was penetrated; the
jaws were opened as far as "the maximal normal separation," and then
by extraordinary force separated still more; the paws were crushed,
and sometimes burnt by the application of a Bunsen's flame; the
stomach was dilated by pumping air and water into it till the stomach
burst; one animal was subjected to "all kinds of operations for a
period of three hours more," including the cutting out of kidneys and
double hip-joint amputations; another suffered the opening of the
abdomen, the crushing of the kidneys, "severe manipulation of the
eye," "severe manipulation of the tongue, puncture, crushing," etc.,
and lastly, a "stimulation of the sciatic nerve"; in one case, the paw
"was placed in boiling water for a considerable time"; in another,
"boiling water was poured into the abdominal cavity"; in yet another,
flame was applied over the heart. I am not quoting all this from
memory; the work describing all these experiments lies open before me
as I write. No Iroquois savage, no Spanish inquisitor, no
professional tormentor of any age ever devised more exquisite
torments, more excruciating agonies, more lengthened tortures than
these 148 vivisections imply--UNLESS, THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE EXPERIMENT
THE COMPLETE INSENSIBILITY OF THE VICTIMS WAS SECURED BY RECOGNIZED
ANAESTHETICS, BEYOND THE POSSIBILITY OF DOUBT.

Such assurance as this it is now impossible for anyone to give with
scientific certai