It might seem impossible that any physician of the present day would care to come forward in defence of this experiment. Yet forty years after the deed was perpetrated, such justification was apparently attempted in an American journal, and republished in a pamphlet issued by the American Medical Association.[1] It would seem at the outset that only by suppression of the worst facts relating to the case, could any defence be essayed. WAS THERE ANY SUCH SUPPRESSION OF MATERIAL FACTS? Let us see. [1] "The Charge of Human Vivisection," by Richard M. Pearce, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association, February 28, 1914. Did any injury to Mary Rafferty result from these experiments upon her brain? Bartholow himself admits some injury; he says that to repeat the experiments "would be in the highest degree criminal." The modern apologist, however will have it otherwise. At the beginning of the experiment, she smiled as if amused; and this, he tells us, "whows that she did not object, that the pain was not severe, AND THAT NO HARM WAS DONE HER." Is this a fair summary of the symptoms elicited during these experiments upon the brain? Why did the apologist mention only the "smile," and neglect altogether to mention the other symptoms reported by Dr. Bartholow? Why does he pass in silence her complain of "ACUTE PAIN IN THE NECK," the "GREAT DISTRESS" EXHIBITED, THE ARM AGITATED WITH CLONIC SPASMS, THE FIXED EYES, THE WIDELY DILATED PUPILS, THE BLUE LIPS, THE FROTHING AT THE MOUTH, THE STERTOROUS BREATHING, THE VIOLENT CONVULSION lasting for five minutes and the succeeding unconsciousness lasting for twenty minutes? Why does the apologist leave unmentioned the symptoms following the subsequent experiments,--the pallor and depression, the blue lips, the difficulty in locomotion, the decided paresis and rigidity of muscles, the profound unconsciousness, THE FINAL PARALYSIS? Do omissions like these suggest an ardent desire to present the whole truth of the matter for the information of the public? The defender of the experiments tells us: "It is not an uncommon procedure in neurologic surgery, to stimulate after operation, in conscious patients, certain areas of the brain. This procedure is a familiar one to all neurologists, and it is THEREFORE DIFFICULT to understand why so much has been made of these early observations in Cincinnati."[1] [1] Italics not in original. Aside from the astounding confession contained in this admission of familiar procedure, it is difficult to understand what is meant by this paragraph. Is it a suggestion that these experiments upon Mary Rafferty were observations following a remedial surgical operation? It is surely impossible that this can be the meaning; for in the original account of the "Investigations into the function of the human brain," there is not a line in support of such hypothesis. The reader may make his own interpretation of a paragraph which seems exceedingly obscure.