ETHICS OF VIVISECTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 26 April 1912, Page 3

ETHICS OF VIVISECTION.

ROYAL COMMISSION REPORT

THE MORAL QUESTION.

LONDON, March 15. Some years ago 10 Commissioners were appointed to inquire into the subject of vivisection, and it is just four years since they ceased to hear evidence. The death of two Commissioners —Lord Selby and Mr Tomkinson —and other causes de. layed the final report from March, 1903, to March. 1912. The report is signed by all eight of the present members. Three of .them sign it with reservations touching certain memoranda, but these memoranda do not affect the main lines of the report. "The report is rather behind the times," writes a special correspondent. "It deals only with the evidence given to the Commission and this evidence was given between October, 1906 and March, 1903. There is not a word 'n the report about Flexner's work on spotted fever and infantile paralysis ; not « word on the complete results df the preventive treatment against typhoid fever in our army in India and the recent army order in the United States making thi s protection compulsory in the United States army; not a word about the later figures from the Pasteur Institute and from the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Science does not stand still while Royal Commissions deliberate. "The report, after a short historical survey, deals with certain charges made by anti-vivisection witnesses against administration of the Act, or against men licensed under the Act. Speaking generally the Commissioners unanimously dismiss these charges with something not far from polite contempt. On the other hand, they rebuke one licensee, whosp evidence is certainly open to some re buke. ' ADVANTAGES OF EXPERIMENTS.

"The report then recalls at-great length the advantages gained by the.nelp •of experiments on animals in the last Jo years. These advantages have come, nui only to mankind, but also to the animaJ world. The diseases of animals are better understood and better contrplled, thanks to experiments on animals. To stop such experiments would have been to inflict a colossal and hideous burden of pain and of death not i>nly on men, women, and children, but also on horsed and cattle, sheep, and ewine. We all know that, and we are glad that the Commission has unanimously recogn:s«x. and proclaimed the value of experiments on animals for the prevention, -cure, and treatment of certain diseases in men and in animals. "The report next considers how far immunity from pain is. or can be, secured in experiments on animals. They conclude that complete insensibility, from pain can be secured by the use of one or the other of, or a combination of, several well-known anaesthetics. That refers to experiments involving some operation under anaesthesia. With regard to inoculations and such like expenemnts which are 95 per cent of all experiments on animals in this country, the Commissioners are agreed that - ln M ll3 lar f e majority of these cases the animals do not suffer pain apparently. In a minority of cases they do. Plague and tetanus cause pain to rats and guinea pigs. So they do to man and woman. THE MORAL QUESTION.

"The report considers, fairly and -quarely, what it calls 'the moral question.' It comes to the conclusion, to which public opinion has already, come, that 'experiments upon animals, adequately safeguarded by law, faithfully administered, are morallv justifiable, and should not be prohibited by legislation. •'Then the Commissioners make certain rp.commer.dations : "The appointment of four whole-time inspectors for Great Britain, instead of two inspectors ; that experiments under anaesthesia which involved the use of ,:urare, should be under special inspectors. Seeing how little use :e made of curare, this recommendation is not, of great importance. They add some extra safeguard for animals in pain after an experiment. They recommend, too, that the advisory body of the Home Omu* should be changed. "Some of us," says the report, would prefer that in the case both of expen mentalisation and /demonstration the further special protection given to horses, asses, and mules should be e* tended to dogs; some of us would ex elude the use of doga altogether. But if any alteration is made in the existii.2 procedure, the majority of us would aLM-eo that the special enactments no* applicable to horses, asses, and mules might be extended to docs, and also to cats and anthropoid apes."_ "All these recommendations can »«• carried into effect bv the Home Office without the helo of Parliament. Ihei* •s nothing which is likelv to hamper any important work of medical science it will b« ."or the Home Office so to admin,? •or the Act that it shall ensure n minimum of pain with a maximum of good work for the relief of pan-. We are all of the one mind really. We want to e kind to animals. But we went-, oxen Sore to bo kind to man. And it i* cer Wr. bv the unanimous opinion ot tne.e Om'missioners, B ft f r years <>f pa .n„t n-d laborious inquiry and deliWio:., tha't to hinder merlu-1 sconce would be, s Darwin aa'd i« .187?- " comm .' t ' l crime nuainst humanity.."—"Herald coirespondent.