It will be seen that the operative procedures in experiments performed
under Certificate A., without anæsthetics, are only such as are
attended by no considerable, if appreciable, pain. The Certificate is,
in fact, not required to cover these proceedings, but to allow of the
subsequent course of the experiment. The experiment lasts during the
whole period from the administration of the drug, or injection, until
the animal recovers from the effects, if any, or dies, or is killed,
possibly extending over several days, or even weeks. The substance
administered may give rise to poisoning, or set up a condition of
disease, either of which may lead to a fatal termination. To
administer to an animal such a poison as diphtheria toxin, for
example, or to induce such a disease as tuberculosis, although it may
not be accompanied by acute suffering, is held to be a proceeding
"calculated to give pain," and therefore experiments of the kind
referred to come within the scope of the Act 39 & 40 Vict., c. 77. The
Act provides that, unless a special certificate be obtained, the
animal must be kept under an anæsthetic during the whole of the
experiment; and it is to allow the animal to be kept without an
anæsthetic during the time required for the development of the results
of the administration that Certificate A. is given and allowed in
these cases.
It must not be assumed that the animal is in pain during the whole of
this time. In cases of prolonged action of an injected substance, even
when ending fatally, the animal is generally apparently well, and
takes its food as usual, until a short time before death. The state of
illness may last only a very few hours, and in some cases it is not
observed at all.
In a very large number of the experiments included in Table IV. (B.),
the results are negative, and the animals suffer no inconvenience
whatever from the inoculation. These experiments are therefore
entirely painless.
In the event of pain ensuing as the result of an inoculation, a
condition attached to the licence requires that the animal shall be
killed under anæsthetics as soon as the main result of the experiment
has been attained.
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