uced by this
drug. Yet to the eye of the experimenter would there not be something
to tell him whether or not the animal was feeling pain?

"I should say so," replied the physiologist--"in the alternations of
blood-pressure."

"IT IS A RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE, is it not?" inquired one of the
Commissioners.

"YES," was the physiologist's curt reply.

"But it would be diminished if the animal was absolutely
anaesthetized?"

"YES," was the reply of Dr. Gotch.

"Is a change in blood-pressure the only mode by which you can
objectively determine whether the animal is conscious, or suffering
pain, if under the influence of curare?" somewhat later, he
physiologist was asked.

"I suggest that THAT IS ONE OBVIOUS WAY."

Let us turn again to the experiment just quoted. No anaesthetic is
mentioned. Curare was administered, the sole effect of which is to
render the living animal as motionless as a corpse. Three times the
greta nerve was electrically "stimulated," and each time there was
that RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE which we are told upon the highest
authority was the "ONE OBVIOUS WAY" of determining the presence of
pain.

Keeping in mind this testimony of the professors of physiology at the
Universities of Oxford, of Cambridge, and of London, that if pain were
present during a vivisection IT WOULD CAUSE A RISE OF THE BLOOD-
PRESSURE, let us now examine a little more carefully some of the
experiments referred to in the volume reviewed in the previous
chapter. We have had assurances of their painlessness. But to the
scientific man assurances are of little value as compared with the
testimony of the instrument. Were any of these experiments associated
with a "RISE IN BLOOD-PRESSURE"? It is unnecessary to study them in
their relation to other phenomena. In the early "stimulations of a
nerve trunk, a rise in blood-pressure was always produced"; but after
a number of repetitions the time came when no effect was produced, or
the pressure fell; the point of exhaustion had been reached. But let
us note what the instrument recorded. The italics are ours.

EXPERIMENT 5. "Under incomplete anaesthesia, CRUSHING OF FOOT CAUSED A
VERY SHARP RISE, followed by an equally sharp decline of pressure.
This was repeated several times." (The author also tells us that
"under full anaesthesia, crushing of the paws" caused a rise. One may
question the completeness of the insensibility.)

EXPERIMENT 8. Fox terrier, two years old; eth