,' replied M. Renault, `but they are
necessary.' `What!' exclaimed M. Dubois; `SIXTY-FOUR OPERATIONS, AND
TEN HOURS OF SUFFERING?' M. Renault explained to him that this was a
question of finance; that if more money were allowed, the horses might
be kept only three or four hours under the knife. M. Dubois stated
that it was true fewer operations are now performed, and that horses
are kept less time under the hands of experimenting students. But, he
declared, he should never forget the sight he witnessed at Alfort.
Some of the horses were just begun upon; others were already horribly
mutilated; they did not cry out, but gave utterance to hollow moans.
M. Dubois, supported by the authority of many veterinary surgeons,
demands that these practices should be discontinued. Dr. Parchappe,
who spoke afterward, agreed with M. Dubois. He said: `... Experiments
on animals are in no way indispensable to completely efficacious
instruction in physiology.'"

It could hardly be expected by anyone but the most sanguine of mortals
that the French Academy of Medicine would agree to censure or condemn
certain of its own members at the instance of English humanitarians,
even though supported by men of their own nationality. When the
matter came to a vote, the opponents of change passed a resolution
declaring that complaints had no basis, and that the question of
performing experiments or surgical operations in the veterinary
schools "SHOULD BE LEFT TO THE DISCRETION OF MEN, OF SCIENCE." This is
precisely the position taken to-day both in England and America by
those who contend that the practice should not be restricted by law.
The Journal, however, adds:

"Everyone who has followed this debate must be aware that the
resolution is ... entirely opposed to the facts elicited in the
discussion. Almost every speaker, except the veterinaries, put in a
protest more or less strong against the practice of surgical
operations in veterinary schools, and again and again was the word
ATROCIOUS applied to them. We learn, moreover, that this mode of
instruction was adopted in 1761, so that for more than a century these
atrocious operations have been practiced on animals in French
veterinary schools. Yet the Academy decides that complaints on this
score are without foundation, and that men of science in this matter
NEED NO INTERFERENCE! We may be sure that, however much the
Academicians may snub the affair, the discussion cannot fail to have
be