A great outcry was raised against these experiments by the National Anti-vivisection Society and the Canine Defence League. The National Society, in its official journal, August 1903, said that it was now proved, "that in England to-day experiments are performed without anæsthetics which involve inconceivable agony to dogs, and this with the deliberate permission of the Home Secretary." Mr. Coleridge made a public appeal to all humane societies, to go down with all their strength into Kent, on that not far distant day when the Home Secretary would have to face his constituents, and turn him out of Parliament. The Canine Defence League sent two memorials to the Home Office, circulated a petition, and issued leaflets, entitled _A National Scandal_, _Scientific Torture_, _A Peep behind the Scenes_, and so forth. We must consider one of these leaflets at some length; but first let us see what is the truth about these experiments. They were made by the Professor of Physiology at Edinburgh; and he has kindly written to me about them. _In every experiment, except two, the animal was, throughout the whole experiment, under complete anæsthesia with chloroform or ether. In two cases, and in two only, a small preliminary operation, under anæsthesia, having been performed, the animal was allowed to recover from the anæsthetic, or almost to recover from it, and was then and there submerged and drowned, at once and completely, to death; no attempt at resuscitation was made; it became unconscious in a little more than a minute._ In the face of these facts, what is to be said of the outcry raised by the Canine Defence League? They presented two memorials to the Home Secretary: they got up a monster petition with thousands of signatures; and they issued the following leaflet:--- SIGN THE NATION'S PETITION TO PARLIAMENT AGAINST THE DISSECTION OF LIVE DOGS _In Medical Laboratories_ */ 1. Dogs, on account of their docility and obedience to the word of command, are the animals chiefly selected for torture. 2. Thousands of dogs are tortured yearly by licensed experimenters. 3. The total number of experiments performed in 1902 was 14,906, 12,776 of which were without anæsthetics. 4. The Home Secretary stated in Parliament on July 22nd, 1903, that neither the starving of animals to death nor the forced over-feeding of animals were included in these returns. 5. Nor does the number 14,906 give the number of dogs used, for each experiment may include any number of dogs--there is no limit fixed by law. 6. The Home Secretary stated in Parliament on May 11th, 1903, that at one laboratory alone in London 232 dogs were used for vivisectional experiments last year. 7. There are now laboratories scattered over the whole of the United Kingdom.