DOGS' PROTECTION BILL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 226, 18 June 1919, Page 3

DOGS' PROTECTION BILL

A BLOW TO MEDICAL SCIENCE LIGHT ON A RECENT CABLEGRAM. (By a Medical Correspondent in the "Morning I'nst.'') [Brief mention cf the Dogs' Protection Bill in England appeared in a recent cablegram from- London.] The prevention and cure of disease are only possible by means of an accurate knowledge of the functions of the body, and there is hardly any fundamental truth with regard-to the workings of the body which has not been established by experiments 011 dog?' The action of the heart and its nerves, the circulation of the blood, the nature of respiration, the pic cesses of digestion,. tho chemical changes tho food .undergoes in., the body, the functions of tho kidneys and of the liver, and tho action of the internal secretory glands have all been-'revealed-by such experiments. And, although corroborative experiments have : been ■ carried out since 011 other ; animals, these would' have been in" many-cases iriipbssible if the principles hnd not first, been established by the use of dogs. . If they'had been excluded from , experiment few of - these facts would, hare been found out, nor would tho knowledge and power-gain-ed thereby have been applied for the benefit, of mnn. • The Value of the Dog. Why is the use of dogs bo essential in medical research? No one will dispute that, to gain a knowledge of living functions, recourse must be had to living animals, and those animals must he 6uch «s can be kept in comfort and health within the precincts of a laboratory. The ordinary farm animals are therefore excluded by this fact alone, but a more fundamental objection to their use so fnr as information to be gained from experiments on them is concerncd arises from the wide differences which exist between the structure functions and habits of their digestive organs and those of man. For a vast number of experiments, viz., the greater part of those necessary in research on infective disease, the smaller animals—mice, rats, guinea pigß, and rabbits—can be employed. In these experiments it is chiefly necessary to decido whether'the injection of a given organism or microbial poison is followed by death or survival. That is thoir purpose and use, and both are limited. As soon as it becomes necessary to analyse the processes occurring in separate organs, e.g.. the heart, the kidney, etc., it is essential to make use of larger animals, and the limitations mentioned confine these to dogs and cats. Cats are, -therefore, U6ed wherever possible. But the dolifacy of their tissues, the small size of their organs, and the marked differences which exist between their food- habits and those of man render it necessary to omplov the dog for many important lines .of -research. Thus it comes about that tho greater' part of. our knowledge of • the heart's action, of the production of lymph, and tho causation oh dropsy, of the nature of diabetes, and of the fate of different kinds of food in the body is owing to experiments on dogs, and would not have been discovered if the use ;.of dogs had been prohibited. A.Disastrous Chock. If this Bill is -allowed to become law j;all resoarch in this-country into such pproblenis as the causes'and treatment of diabetes, of Bright's disease, of heart diseases, and dropsy, or disorders of stomach and intestines, and many others, will be hampered 'to such an extent that progress in 1 our knowledge .will come to an end, ■ except, iii so far as ..it 1 can be j slowly and painfully attained -by observations and experiments on human patients themselves. The prohibition of the Bill would bo equally disastrous for the progress, of I surgery. The fundamental advances I made during the last, 'twenty ;yeats, which have nroved'of. such inestimable value .not only in. civil -practice, ■ but also during tho war. in the treatment, pf our. wounded .soldiers,, were achieved m the! first ■. by, means of experiments: on.-dogs.- r-By -.such.- experiments.-it-'was 'first'shown, to be possible, to excise'; portions, of,'.tho alimeutal canal, to maka openings from- one , part to tho other 'in order to relieve obstruction, 'to remove part, or whole of, internal organs,:to implant bone'and tissues,.so as 1 to restore defects, to*deal fearlessly with the cavity of-.the chest,, to sew up wounds in the living, and beating heart, to restore continuity of wounded "bloodvessels, and to operate with success on the brain itself. Though the advances in'medicirio of recent years-have been 60 marked, much remains to bo discovered. .' . . Much more remains to bo achieved in order to abolish or alleviate even a fraction of the pain and suffering which is all around us. But all activity 111 this direction would he hampered, .and much of it brought to. a standstill, if the Bill now 'in' committeo were allowed to become law. The Effect of the Bill. Nor can tho Bill he justified' on the ground that it would diminish any pains at present suffered by dogs, under the law as it at present stands the infliction of pain on dogs is already prevented. According to the regulations now in force, the animal has to bo under the-full influence of an anaesthetic during the whole operation, and to M killed before recovering consciousness. Or. if the object of the experiment requiros that the dog should he allowed to survive, it must ho at once killed under an anaesthetic should pam supervene at any time after the operation. Such .-regulations are demanded on imrelv scientific grounds, since the cxist--onco 'of pain during an experiment is a. disturbing factor, which is not only in unnecessary complication, but- may >11ato tho whole result of the experiment. The only effect of tho Bill, therefore, so far as dogs are concerned., would ho that a few more of the stray aud homeless'dogs tliat aro now used for «P»«mertt would be added to _ tll6 ,. M ' ofl M which arc killed by suffocation dnring each year at the Dogs Home at Battersea. ■ - .