he vital powers of the animal, and to induce a
condition of collapse, and this was followed by such "stimulation" of
nerves as would tend to cause the blood-pressure to rise in an animal
not perfectly anaesthetized. The means taken to depress the vital
powers were as varied as the ingenuity of the vivisectors could
devise. Sometimes it was accomplished by skinning the animal alive, a
par of the body at a time, and then roughly "sponging" the denuded
surface. Sometimes it was secured by crushing the dog's paws, first
one and then the other. Now and then the dog's feet were burnt, or
the intestines exposed and roughly manipulated; the tail was crushed,
the limbs amputated, the stomach cut out. Then came the "stimulation"
of the exposed nerve, carried on and repeated sometimes until Nature
refused longer to respond, and death came to the creature's relief.
No torments more exquisite were ever perpetrated unless absence of
feeling was completely secured. Was it so secured? Let the
experimenter's own report give us the facts, remembering that if there
was pain, "THE BLOOD-PRESSURE WOULD RISE."

EXPERIMENT 42. The material used was a little dog, weighing only 11
pounds. How it was "reduced to shock"--whether by skinning or
crushing--we are not informed; all we know is that it was "reduced to
shock." The sciatic nerve was exposed, the artery in the neck laid
bare, and the instrument for measuring the blood-pressure carefully
adjusted. Ether, we are told, was used. Was all sensibility thereby
wholly suppressed? Let us see what is revealed by the changes of the
blood-pressure.[1]

[1] In all experiments cited in this chapter the italics are not in
the original descriptions.

"10.30 a.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. SLOW RISE IN BLOOD-PRESSURE.
10.35 a.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE.
10.51 a.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE.
11.30 a.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE
13 MILLIMETRES.
11.59 a.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE
5 MILLIMETRES."

Noon has come. It is the hour when experimenters need their
accustomed refreshment, and we note a long interval during which there
were no observations. The victim lies stretched upon the rack. After
nearly two hours the pastime began again, or, we may say, "the young
scientists resumed their arduous labours."

"1.55 p.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. ABRUPT RISE OF BLO