Page:Blackwell 1898 Scientific method in biology.pdf/42

30 form an enormous mass of living creatures, kept for the attempted demonstration of vital action in the lecture-room, or for the study of diseased processes in the physiological laboratory.

It is a fallacy (although proclaimed in high places) that the ordinary student of medicine must be prepared for his practical work as a physician for men by watching the opening of chest, abdomen, brain, or cutting into the delicate vital organs of living lower animals. Such demonstration is a thrilling spectacle to inexperienced students. It appeals to that love of excitement which makes them rush to a surgical operation, or to an extraordinary medical case which may have no bearing whatever on their future practice, whilst the commonplace but all-important bedside observation seems dull in comparison. Yet patient work in the anatomical and microscopic rooms, and in the chemical laboratory for general and animal chemistry, and close clinical study, all of which involve no form of suffering, are of primary importance. The genius of a Professor, as an instructor, is shown by his ability to make his pupils realize this.

Destructive experimentation on helpless animals