e first appearance of the
story was in an address delivered before the Women's Medical College,
and reprinted in the Popular Science Monthly of May, 1885, nearly
thirty years ago. It thus appears:

"Lister himself, no tyro, but the great master, is still searching for
further improvements. But when, lately, he desired to make some
experiments on animals, still further to perfect our practice, so many
obstructions were thrown in his way in England that HE WAS DRIVEN TO
TOULOUSE to pursue his humane researches."

"He was driven to Toulouse." The phrase is worth remembering. Fifteen
years later the author of this statement appeared before the Senate
Committee at Washington, D.C., to oppose a Bill regulating the
practice of animal experimentation in the District of Columbia. In
course of his address, delivered February 21, 1900, he again repeated
the story:

"When Lord Lister, whose name is the most illustrious in the history
of surgery, wanted to carry out some further experiments in Great
Britain, where, as Dr. Leffingwell has expressed it, the `very
moderate restriction of the law applies'--experiments for the direct
benefit of humanity--HE WAS OBLIGED TO GO TO FRANCE TO CARRY ON HIS
EXPERIMENTS for the benefit of the human race BECAUSE HE COULD NOT DO
IT IN ENGLAND!"

Can one imagine any argument against the legal regulation of
vivisection more weighty than this assertion, that the most
illustrious man in English medicine was "obliged to go to France"
because he could not make his researches on English soil? Could doubt
of the story exist when it was related by the President of the
American Medical Association before a committee of the United States
Senate? This story alone may have indused the rejection of the
proposed legislation.

The legend again found expression nearly three years later, in a
letter written by the same person to Senator Gallinger, and
telegraphed to the newspaper press throughout the country. In the
Philadelphia Medical Journal of December 13, 1902, it appeared as
follows:

"If the laws which you and your friends advocate were in force, the
conditions for scientific investigation in this country would be quite
as deplorable as those in England. For example, when Lord Lister, who
has revolutionized modern surgery, largely as a result of such
experiments, wished to discover possibly some still better way of
operating by further experiments, HE WAS OBLIGED TO GO TO TOULOUSE TO
CARRY TH