experimenter
had made, either personally or by his assistants. The number of dogs
thus sacrificed was no less than 243; the experiments to which they
were subjected amounted to 251. Ether alone was used in 107
experiments, or about 43 per cent. of the whole number; ether and
morphia were employed in 80 experiments, or 32 per cent. of the
total. Chloroform combined with ether was used but ONCE. In no less
than 15 per cent. of the experiments no anaesthetic whatever is named,
and CURARE was employed in nearly 10 per cent. of the investigations.
Why was curare used? We have seen that the professor of physiology in
Upsaal University regards it as "the most cruel of poisons." An animal
under its influence, Professor Holmgren tells us, "changes instantly
into a living corpse, WHICH HEARS AND SEES AND KNOWS EVERYTHING, but
is unable to move a single muscle, and under its influence no creature
can give the faintest indication of its hopeless condition." The
French vivisector, Claude Be'rnard, tells us frankly that death under
the influence of this poison "is accompanied by sufferings the most
atrocious that the imagination of man can conceive." Precisely the
reason why this poison was employed in the investigations before us we
have no means of knowing by anything the vivisector has stated in his
report. He tells us, indeed, that "the animals were all reduced to
full surgical anaesthesia before the experiments began, a nd were
killed before recovery from the same." We see no reason for doubting
why this may not have been true. It is quite probably that as a rule
the preliminary cutting operations necessary were made while the
animal was deeply insensible. But was this deep insensibility
maintained for hours? Was it so absolute that doubt is impossible?
Since it is certain that the irritation produces a rise in blood-
pressure, was this phenomenon never witnessed during the terrible
operations to which these dogs were subjected for hours at a time? If,
as Professor Langley of the University of Cambridge explained, pain
"WOULD CAUSE A RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE," was this sign of agony ever
evoked when the bare nerve was subjected to "stimulation," or the paws
"slowly scorched" one after another? Let us see.

We observe that as a rule each vivisection consisted of two
procedures, aside from the preliminary operation. In the first place,
the normal pressure of the blood was reduced by various methods,
calculated to depress t