It is not my purpose to trace the course of the English agitation against vivisection, except as it may be seen in the medical literature of the time; but one cannot refer to this period without mention of the name of Frances Power Cobbe. In 1863, while in Italy, she had protested, and not in vain, against the cruelties of Professor Schiff in Florence. Taking up the question again in 1874, she devoted the remainder of her life to the advancement of her ideals of reform. It was to her zeal that in 1875 was founded the "Society for the Protection of Animals liable to Vivisection." At this period, then, three phases of opinion opposed one another; first, the antivivisectionists, who desired the total suppression by law of all animal experimentation; second, the physiological enthusiasts, few in number, but favourable to the introduction of the Continental irresponsibility, and eager to free vivisection from every semblance of restraint; and, thirdly, the great body of Englishmen and of the medical profession, whose views we have seen reflected in medical journals of the day. The popular attack upon all animal experimentation became so pressing that for a time the entire medical profession seemed to unite in its defence; and editorial space once filled with denunciation of vivisection in France was now given over to criticism of the antivivisectionists of England. Yet, even at this period, there appeared no repudiation of those humane principles, so long professed by English medical men. One leading journal, the Medical Times and Gazette, thus suggests that very oversight of vivisection which we are told is impossible: "Just as the law demands that a teacher of anatomy should take out a licence, and be responsible for the bodies entrusted to him, so a teacher of physiology might be required to take out some such licence as regards the teaching of practical physiology. We have never been of those who advocate the wholesale performance of experiments by students, especially on the higher animals, if they are of such a kind as to require any degree of skill for their performance. When the medical public seemed bitten with what was called `practical physiology,' many were ready to advocate the performance of all kinds of experiments on living animals by uninstructed students. Against this notion we were first to protest, as being at once cruel and worse than useless; for an experiment performed by bungling fingers is no experiment at all, but wanton cruelty." After explaining his position in favour of scientific research, the editor refers to a recent discussion on vivisection in London: