ELL."

With this sensible conclusion it is quite impossible to disagree.

Another question is of importance. For these experiments upon the
eye, WERE DYING CHILDREN EVER USED AS MATERIAL?

Apparently, there can be no doubt of the fact. The experimenter
distinctly states that "DYING CHILDREN, or those who were extremely
sick did not as a rule, react to any of the tests." The assertion is
repeated: "In no case were positive reactions obtained in DYING
CHILDREN."

In one of the tables, there is also a reference to dying children.

We are told that "the hands of the children were confined during the
first twelve hours, to prevent any rubbing of the eye."

Can it be that dying children were thus treated? We are not told to
the contrary. Yet it would seem that impending death might well have
conferred immunity, not merely from such restraint but from the entire
experiment. The thought of a dying child with fettered hands, is not
a picture upon which the imagination would willingly dwell.

Upon these experiments involving the eye, what judgment is a plain man
entitled to make?

In the first place, he should draw a clear distinction between the
experiments made upon tuberculous patients, and those made upon
healthy children. Among the large number of experiments, it is
possible that some were made upon carefully selected cases for the
personal benefit of the individuals concerned. Regarding these,
opinions may differ as to expediency; but they belong to the rightful
province of medical tratment,--wise or otherwise. But if these tests
were applied without discrimination, without previous inquiry into
their condition; if they were made only upon the eyes of the orphans
and foundlings, and the poor in hospital and dispensary, and not upon
the children of the wealthier classes; if in large numbers, men,
women and children were made "the unselected material" for tests
wherein their individual welfare was not sought, in experiments which
not only "produced great physical discomfort" but were liable also to
"permanently affect the vision, and even lead to its entire
destruction," it would seem impossible to regard them with admiration
or approval. Would any of us care to have his own dying child,
separated from its mother, and with hands confined, made the
"material" for any such experiment? Should we care to have anyone dear
to us, subjected to the risks which seem to have been so freely
imposed upon the unfortunate