An ethical problem; or, Sidelights upon scientific experimentation on man and animalsLeffingwell, Albert
Philosophy
An ethical problem; or, Sidelights upon scientific experimentation on man and animals
Leffingwell, Albert
Medicine, Experimental; Vivisection
"Le petit, animal, voulant teter, et trouvant pas de mamelles, a donne
de violent coups de te^te dans le re'gion mammaire...."[2]
[1] In a reference to de Sinety's vivisections at page 171, in the
present volume, there is a slight mistake. Although de Sinety, as
shown above, had practised the ablation of the mammary glands during
lactation, it would seem that mutilation rather than complete ablation
preceded his experiments on the innervation of the mammary nerve. The
sentence should read "cut into the breasts," and not "removed the
breasts." He tells us that he made a considerable number of
experiments of the kind upon female guinea-pigs. In one of them, for
example, he laid bare the nerve and isolated it with a thread,--"le
nerf mammaire d'un co^te est mis a` nu, et isole," and that when the
electric current was used, extreme pain,--"un douleur tre`s vivre" was
excited, notwithstanding which the excitation was continued for ten
minutes. (Gazette Me'd. de Paris, for 1879, p. 593).
[2] Comptes Rendus de la Soc. de Biologie, Paris, 1883, p. 778.
There is no need of completing the description. It was an experiment
absolutely useless and without justification. We may confess that we
read of such useless cruelties of experiment only with infinite
disgust.
No matter how careful a writer may be, it is very rare that he
escapes, from unfriendly readers, the imputation of inaccuracy.
Against writers of history--men like Froude, Macaulay, or Carlyle--the
same charge has been made. But a critic whose microscopic eye
discerns inaccuracy in others should be very careful to make no
similar errors himself. The mistake upon which he has dwelt, was due
to reliance upon the translation of another man. It may be of
interest to point out that in his own writings Dr. Keen has made a
precisely similar mistake; and that although it was pointed out and
its untruth confessed many years ago, yet the false imputation appears
again in the pages of his book, without correction or intimation of
its utter untruth, on the page where it firs tis given to the reader
of to-day.
In a pamphlet published during the closing years of the last century
by the American Humane Association, there appeared a strong
condemnation of experiments made by a Dr. Sanarelli, apparently upon
hospital patients, temporarily under his care. In an Italian
periodical, the young scientist described his researches with
remarkable frankness. He tells of the various symptoms of yellow
fever, which by his serum he had caused his victims to suffer--the
congestions, the haemorrhage, the delirium, the fatty degeneration,
the collapse; and all these, he adds, "I have seen unrolled before my
eyes, THANKS TO THE POTENT INFLUENCE OF THE YELLOW-FEVER POISON MADE
IN MY LABORATORY."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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