The Vivisectors' Directory: Being a list of the licensed vivisectors in the United Kingdom, together with the leading physiologists in foreign laboratories
Science
The Vivisectors' Directory: Being a list of the licensed vivisectors in the United Kingdom, together with the leading physiologists in foreign laboratories
Vivisection
“V. In this case the exploration was not sufficiently definite, as the
exact position of the electrodes was not observed, and death occurred
before a more careful exploration could be made. The application of
the electrodes to the ganglia on the left side, caused the animal to
utter various barking, howling, or screaming sounds of an incongruous
character. The head was drawn back and to the right, and the right
angle of the mouth was strongly retracted while the stimulation
was kept up. The tail was raised and the limbs were thrown into
contortions, but nothing further was ascertained as the animal died from
hæmorrhage.”--_Ibid._, p. 429.
“Experiments on the lower animals, even on apes, often lead to
conclusions seriously at variance with well-established facts of clinical
and pathological observation.… The decisive settlement of such points
must depend mainly on careful clinical and pathological research.…
Experiments have led to different views in different hands.”--Ferrier
(_Functions of the Brain_, Preface).
“Physiological experiments conducted in these regions are most
indefinite. The usual plan of investigation, viz., that of applying
stimuli to the brain substance, leads either to negative results, or,
if electrical stimulation is used, to results which, owing to the
unavoidable dispersal of the currents in numerous directions, are not
sufficiently localised to form the basis for trustworthy conclusions. In
place of exact observations after section and stimulation of different
regions, we have here the far less refined method of observation after
lesions--lesions induced in the most delicate and complicated organ
of the body by means so absurdly rough that, as Ludwig has forcibly
put it, they may be compared to injuries to a watch by means of a
pistol-shot. The results obtained in this way are attributable to the
most diverse causes; for, apart from the fact that it is impossible to
localise the lesion itself, the results may be due to irritation of
centres, paralysis of centres, stimulation of conducting apparatus, or
paralysis of conducting apparatus, without our being able to say which.
Hence the interpretation of even those phenomena which are constant
in their occurrence is always uncertain. The third and best method of
investigation which is possible is the observation of cases of disease
in which the exact nature of the lesions is accurately ascertained after
death.”--_Hermann’s Human Physiology_, translated by Professor Gamgee,
London, 1878. (Chapter on the Functions of the Encephalon), p. 444.
=Fick, Adolf.= B. at Cassel, 1829. M.D., 1852, Extraordinary Prof., 1856,
and later, Prof. of Physiology in ordinary Univ. Zurich; Prof. Physiol.
at Wurzburg, 1868.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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