VIVISECTION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1421, 23 April 1912, Page 5

VIVISECTION.

BRITISH COll MISSION'S REPORT. In its' summary of tho report of ths Royal Commission on Y'ivisectibn, pub-; lishort last month, the London ''Daily. Mail" said;— ; The report then'recalls at great length 1 tho advantages gained by-tho help of experiments on animals in the last thirty years. These advantages have como not only to mankind but also to the animal' world. The diseases of animals are belter understood and bettor controlled, thanks to experiments on animals. To slop such J experiments would have l>een lo inflict n/. colossal and hideous burden of pain and of death not only on men, women, and children, bill also on" horses- and cattle," sheep and swine. AV-e all know Hint;, and wo ore glad that the commission hasr' unanimously recognised and proclaimed! Iho valfio nf experiments on animals for; the prevention, cure, and treatment o6i cerlnin diseases in man and in animals. The re-port next considers bow far im» ' niunity from pain is,-or can be, secured; in ex peri men is' on animal?.. . They con'tludo. that complete ..insensibility", from,' pain can be secured by Iho inn of on« or other of, or a combination of. several well-known -anaesthetics.' 'l'hat voters tor experiments involving sonvo operation* under anaesthesia. With 'regard to mow: latiens and such-like experiment-:, which! are !)5 per cent, of nil experiments onanimals in this country, tho Commis-; (doners are agreed' that, in the ' lnvg/vS mnjority of these eases, thcvuiimals do*not appear to suffer pain.'--In nminority-' of cases, t.hoy do. Plague and tetanus, canso pain' to rats and to guinea-pigs. So (hey do to men and. women, - ~-, . Tho report considers fairly and squarely, what it calls ','llie moral question." It comes lo the conclusion, to which pub-' lie opinion has already come, that "experiments upon animals adequately safe-/ guarded by law, faithfully administered, aro morally justifiable, and should not b».prohibited by legislation."

"Some of us;" says the report. "wSiild prefer that in Iho case both of experimentation and demonstration, the further special protection given In horses, assev and mules should bo extended to dog 1;;' some of us would exclude the use of dogs altogether. But if any-alteration is modn in the existing procedure, Iho imiinrilv of us would agree that the special enact--inputs now applicable to horses, a'S-vs ' and mules might be extended to docs and" also to cats and anthropoid opes."