so
widespread in America and is so sedulously cultivated by those who
oppose any reform, that it seems worth while to show just how the law
is regarded in the land to which it applies.

Sir Douglas Powell, President of the Royal College of Physicians, the
physician to the King, and Senior Physician to Guy's Hospital, was
asked whether the laws at present governing vivisection "have been in
any way noxious to Science?" "No, I do not think so," was his reply.
"I think, as administered at the present time, they have not
interfered with the advance of Science." Sir Henry Morris, President
of the Royal College of Surgeons, being asked substantially the same
question, replied: "I think the present Act of 1876, under which
vivisectional experiments are done, WAS AMPLY PROTECTIVE AGAINST
CRUELTY, AND SUFFICIENTLY FREE AND LIBERAL FOR THE DUE PROSECUTION OF
PROPER SCIENTIFIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL INQUIRY." Considering their
source, are not these remarkable testimonies concerning what is the
fashion in America to designate as "the calamitous measure of 1876"?

What is the opinion of the law held by men engaged in teaching in the
medical schols of England? Do they demand its repeal?

Dr. Pembrey, the Lecturer on Physiology at Guy's Hospital, London,
does not like many of the restrictions; yet, being asked if he
advocated the abolition of the Vivisection Act, replied: "No, I would
not do that.... I think only people interested and people who are
competent should be allowed to make vivisection experiments." The
professor of physiology in the University of Cambridge,
Dr. J. N. Langley, told the Commissioners: "I WOULD MUCH RATHER HAVE
THE ACT THAN NO ACT. I think it would not be fair to the animals to
allow anyone to experiment upon them without control." Dr. Francis
Gotch, professor of physiology in the University of Oxford, being
asked whether the law had restricted scientific research in
experiments upon warm-blooded animals, answered: "No, I do not think
it restricts it. I THINK IT HAS OPERATED WELL." Dr. Lorrain Smith,
professor of pathology in the Univesity of Manchester, when asked if
he had any objection to the present restrictions placed by law upon
operations on living animals, answered, "No." Dr. E. H. Starling, a
Fellow of the Royal Society, and professor of physiology at University
College, London, declared that at the present time, the physiological
school in England occupied a very high place in the world, "not
infe