o
promote reform? What should we ask with the hope that popular judgment
will gradually come to approve? How may we be faithful to that ideal
of justice toward our inferior brethren, which underlies all
humanitarian effort, and lack nothing in fidelity to Science to whose
achievements we reverently look for the amelioration of the human
race? There are those who would oppose the slightest use of animals
for any scientific purpose whatever. There are others who would grant
to the vivisector the secrecy and silence, the complete
irresponsibility and unbounded freedom which he demands as his right.
There are those to whom a middle course seems the only one leading to
ultimate reform. What is the most reasonable attitude toward the
laboratory and its claims possible to an honest and clear-minded
investigator who is anxious to protect all living creatures from cruel
acts, and equally concerned in the conservation of every legitimate
privilege which Science can claim?

Such a man stands, let us say, before some great biological
laboratory, richly endowed, slendidly equipped, and in the present
enjoyment of freedom that is without bounds, and in a secrecy that
to-day is as complete as can be imagined. What can he learn with
certainty of what goes on within? If he hears claims of superlative
gains by the experiments there carried on, how is he to weigh and
decide their value? If there is cruelty behind those barred doors, how
is he to prevent its constant recurrence? What, in short, should be
the reasonable attitude of every intelligent man or woman anxious to
know the truth and to promote reform of abuse?

For many years I have insisted upon the necessity for a certain degree
of scepticism regarding every claim put forth by the laboratory,
unsupported by convincing proofs. We may judge the future by the
past. Has there not been evinced a disposition to exaggerate
achievement, to deny secrecy, to mislead regarding the infliction of
pain? No intelligent person, it seems to me, can study the vidence
carefully, year after year, without reaching this attitude of distrust
and doubt in a great number of instances. This by no means indicates
that every claim of utility is false. A great many statements are
accurate. Some claims will be partly true, but magnified by the
enthusiasm of youth far beyond what devotion to a strict veracity
would require. And some claims may be doubted altogether. It may be
doubted whether any r