"Gross abuses in any profession should not be hushed up, but should rather bemade public as freely as possible, so as to rouse public opinion against them and thus render their repetition or spread impossible. And therefore we have reason to thank the newspaper Vorw"arts for dragging into light the experiments made by Dr. Strubell on patients.... The whole medical profession must reprobate cruelties such as these perpetrated in the name of Science."[1] [1] British Medical Journal, July 7, 1900, p. 60. It is this sentiment which justifies present publicity. The cases to which attention will be directed are not many; but they suffice to illustrate the practice, and to enable the reader to decide whether such experiments should meet approval or condemnation. I. The Case of Mary Rafferty An instance of human vivisection which ended by the death of the victim, occurred some years ago in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. It would be difficult to suggest a name for a hospital more suggestive of kindly consideration for the sick and unfortunate: and to this charitable institution, there came one day a poor Irish servant girl by the name of Mary Rafferty. She was not strong, either mentally or physically. Some years before, when a child, she had fallen into an open fire, and in some way had severely burned her scalp. In the scar tissue an eroding ulcer-- possibly of the nature of cancer,--had appeared; and it had progressed so far that the covering of the brain substance had been laid bare. No cure could be expected; but with care and attention she might possibly have lived for several months. We are told that she made no complain of headache or dizziness; that she seemed "cheerful in manner," and that "she smiled easily and frequently,"--doubtless with the confidence of a child who without apprehension of evil, feels it is among friends. The accident, however, had made her good "material"; she offered opportunity for experimentation of a kind hitherto made only upon animals. "It is obvious," says the vivisector, "that it is exceedingly desirable to ascertain how far the results of experiments on the brain of animals may be employed to elucidate the functions of the human brain."[1] [1] This case, under the significant title, "Experimental Investigations into the Functions off the Human Brain," is related at length in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, vol. 93 (N.S., 67). At the outset the experiments seem to have been somewhat cautiously made. Nobody knew exactly what would be the result. The experimenter began by inserting into Mary Rafferty's brain, thus exposed by disease, needle electrodes of various lengths, and connecting them with a battery. As a result, her arm was thrown out, the fingers extended, but in the brain substance no pain was felt. Presently, as the experimenter grew bolder, other phenomena appeared. The vivisector shall tell the story in his own words: