ld the atrocities
perpetrated in the name of Science in Continental laboratories. In
our own day, when some of the leading teachers in medical schools have
only scorn for those who denounce cruelty in the laboratory, it is
worth while to study the sentiments of an earlier generation, when
sympathy for animal suffering was not a subject for mockery.

The Medical Times and Gazette of London was one of the earlier of
medical journals to denounce the cruelties perpetrated by vivisection
abroad. In its issue of September 4, 1858, the editor says:

"In this country we are glad to think that experiments on animals are
never performed nowadays except upon some reasonable excuse for the
pain thus wilfully inflicted. We are inclined to believe that the
question will some day be asked, whether any excuse can make them
justifiable? One cannot read without shuddering details like the
following. It would appear from these that the practice of such
brutality is the everyday lesson taught in the veterinary schools of
France.

"A small cow, very thin, and which had undergone numerous operations--
that is to say, WHICH HAD SUFFERED DURING THE DAY THE MOST EXTREME
TORTURE--was placed upon the table, and killed by insufflation of air
into the jugular vein."[1]

This fact is related by M. Sanson, of the veterinary school of
Toulouse, merely incidentally, when describing an experiment of his
own upon the blood. The wretched animal was actually cut to pieces by
the students! ... M. Sanson adds (merely wanting to prove that the
nervous system of the animals upon which he operated was properly
stirred up): `Those who have seen these wretched animals on their bed
of suffering--lit de douleur--know the degree of torture to which they
are subjected; torture, in fact, under which they for the most part
succumb!'"

[1] In all extracts italics are the compiler's.

A little later the same medical journal again touched the subject of
vivisection in its editorial columns. In its issue of October 20,
1860, the editor is even more emphatic in denunciation:

"Two years ago we called attention to the brutality practised at the
veterinary schools in France, and gave a specimen of the kind of
torture there inflicted upon animals. WE ARE VERY GLAD TO SEE THAT
THE PUBLIC ARE NOW OCCUPIED WITH THE SUBJECT, and we are sure that the
Profession at large will fully agree with us IN CONDEMNING EXPERIMENTS
WHICH ARE MADE SIMPLY TO DEMONSTRATE PHYSIOLOG