rior to that of any other nation"--surely a strange fact for a
country suffering from what the American editor calls "the calamitous
measure of 1876"!

Everywhere we find substantially the same testimony. Sir James
Russell, being asked whether the law had operated in way of preventing
legitimate research, replied in the negative, giving it as his opinion
that "the Act has worked with substantial smoothness." Sir Victor
Horsley, widely known as an experimenter and as a surgeon, criticized
many of the details of the law, yet when asked whether or not he was
opposed to the Act altogether, answered: "Oh, no. I look upon the Act
as necessary in view of public opinion.... To the purpose of the Act,
that experiments should only be done in registered places and only by
persons who hold a licence from the Home Secretary, there can be no
objection whatever; at least, I cannot see any." Sir John Rose
Bradford, professor of medicine at University College Hospital in
London, being asked if it might not be better if the Act were
abolished altogether, replied: "No; I think experiments on animals
should be regulated by an Act." Whether there were any alterations
that might be valuable, was a subject to which he had given no thought
during recent yeaars. Dr. Dixon, a professor in King's College,
declared that in his opinion "THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WOULD BE STRONGLY
AGAINST THE ACT BEING REPEALED NOW." Dr. Thane, one of the Government
inspectors, admits that science has not suffered materially by any
restrictions, and has no recommendations to make. And Dr. Martin, a
director of the Lister Institute, being asked if English scientific
men "are less advanced than their brethren on the Continent in
consequence" of the regulation of vivisection, answered very promptly,
"No."

It is impossible here to quote the evidence in full; to do that would
require a volume. No one of these experts claimed that the law was
perfect; each representative of English science was doubtless able to
indicate some detail capable of improvement and pertaining to the
better working of the law. But when it came to repealing the law
altogether, not one of the distinguished men here quoted was in favour
of it. The principle of State regulation, against the adoption of
which in America every art of prevarication has been employed, that
principle is fully accepted by the English medical profession to-day.
Was it fair for the editor of a leading journal to misst