riment, for he says:

"In a boy aged ten, who had never in his life before taken alcohol in
any form, I found through A LARGE NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, a constant
and decided reduction of temperature."

Is there any parent who would be willing to have his ten-year-old boy
subjected to an experiment like this?

Poisoning with Nitrate of Sodium.

"To eighteen adults, fourteen men and four women, we ordered 10 grains
of pure nitrate of sodium in an ounce of water, and of these,
seventeen declared they were unable to take it.... One man, a burly
strong fellow, suffering from a little rheumatism only, said that
after taking the first dose, he felt giddy as if he `would go off
insensible.' His lips, face, and hands turned blue, and he had to lie
down an hour and a half before he dared moved. His heart fluttered,
and he suffered from throbbing pains in the head. He was urged to try
another dose, but declined on the ground THAT HE HAD A WIFE AND
FAMILY...."[1]

[1] The London Lancet, November 3, 1883, p. 767

When this account of hospital experimentation first appeared in the
Lancet, another medical journal made the following comment:

"In publishing, and indeed, in instituting these reckless experiments
on the effect of nitrate of sodium on the human subject, Professor
Ringer and Dr. Murrill have made a deplorably false move, which the
ever watchful opponenets of vivisection will not be slow to profit
by.... It is impossible to read the paper in last week's Lancet
without distress. Of eighteen adults to whom Drs. Ringer and Murrill
administered the drug in 10-grain doses--all but one avowed they would
expect to drop down dead if they ever took another dose. One woman
fell to the ground, and lay with throbbing head and nausea for three
hours; another said it turned her lips quite black, and upset her so
that she was afraid that she would never get over it.... One girl
vomited for two hours and thought she was dying. All these
observations are recorded with an innocent naivete as though the idea
that anyone could possibly take exception to them were far from the
writers' minds. But whatever credit may be given to Drs. Ringer and
Murrill for scientific enthusiasm, it is impossible to acquit them of
grave indiscretion. THERE WILL BE A HOWL THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY IF IT
COMES OUT that officers of a public charity are in the habit of trying
SUCH USELESS AND CRUEL EXPERIMENTS on the patients committed to t