as a defensible method of investigation.

Now all this is not a cry of despair, a confession of defeat. It is
meant only to be rational recognition of existing conditions, and
especially of the forces that now prevent reform. Perhaps if the
armies were united, a different forecast could be made; but that union
is beyond hope. The enthusiasm that would expect to eliminate a great
evil on other terms, and within the space of time occupied by a single
generation does not seem to me to be justified by the records of
history. Of the ultimate triumph of the reform of vivisection, there
can be no more question than of the result of the agitation against
human slavery, against the torment of criminals, against the burning
of the heretic or the witch. In what way may we anticipate its
coming?

We may be certain that a period will yet arrive, when among the more
intelligent classes of society, doubts concerning the practical
utility of all that is done in the name of Science will take the place
of present-day credulity. It is too soon to expect a general spirit
of inquiry to arise; the closed laboratory has not been so long in
existence but that a request for more time to demonstrate possibility
of accomplishment may seem not unreasonable. But some time in the
future, long after we have all passed away, the intellectual world may
be moved by the spirit of doubt and unrest; it will ask from the
laboratory a statement of account; it will demand that the books be
balanced; and that against the cost of agony and death, there be made
known whatever gains in way of discoveries of clearly demonstrated
value to humanity, can be proven to exist.

Like the servant in the parable, the modern laboratory has been given
its ten talents. It enjoys a secrecy which is profound, all that
wealth can procure, and unrestricted opportunity for ever phase of
research. There is no limitation to the torments which it may
inflict, without impediment or fear of public criticism, if present
secrecy can be maintained. The conscience of modern society--so far
as vivisection is concerned,--would seem to have "journeyed into a far
country." But some day it may return to its own, and ask for an
accounting of its trust.

And fifty years hence, if pressed for the proof of great achievement,
of grand discoveries, what evidence will then be produced by the
vivisection laboratory? How much of wealth will have been devoted to
fruitless explorations in