An Ethical Problem By the Same Author RAMBLES IN JAPAN WITHOUT A GUIDE. London, 1892 ILLEGITIMACY, and THE INFLUENCE OF SEASONS UPON CONDUCT. London and New York, 1893 VIVISECTION IN AMERICA. New York, 1895 THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. New York, 1901 THE MORALITY OF LONDON. London, 1908 THE VIVISECTION CONTROVERSY. London, 1908 AMERICAN MEAT. London and New York, 1910 AN ETHICAL PROBLEM OR SIDELIGHTS UPON SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTATION ON MAN AND ANIMALS BY ALBERT LEFFINGWELL, M.D. LATE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION AUTHOR OF "THE VIVISECTION QUESTION," ETC. SECOND EDITION, REVISED LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. NEW YORK C.P. FARREL, 117 EAST 21st STREET 1916 PREFACE The position taken by the writer of this volume should be clearly understood. It is not the view known as antivivisection, so far as this means the condemnation without exception of all phases of biological investigation. There are methods of research which involve no animal suffering, and which are of scientific utility. Within certain careful limitations, these would seem justifiable. For nearly forty years, the writer has occupied the position which half a century ago was generally held by a majority of the medical profession in England, and possibly in America, a position maintained in recent years by such men as Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson of England, by Professor William James and Dr. Henry J. Bigelow of Harvard University. With the present ideals of the modern physiological laboratory, so far as they favour the practice of vivisection in secrecy and without legal regulation, the writer has no sympathy whatsoever. An ethical problem exists. It concerns not the prevention of all experimentation upon animals, but rather the abolition of its cruelty, its secrecy, its abuse.