Page:Blackwell 1898 Scientific method in biology.pdf/48

36 in Great Britain, will see how easy it now is to obtain a license, and how carefully the provisions of the Bill are arranged to give freedom to experimentation—in fact, to protect experimenters rather than their helpless victims. Thus, whilst in Section 2 a penalty of £100 or three months' imprisonment is imposed for acts of cruelty, the Bill proceeds in Section 3 to give absolute freedom to every licensed person to torture, to mutilate, to disease, to any extent if he considers it advisable to do so. In Section II it gives exceeding wide scope for procuring licenses. By Sections 7-10 it makes the efficient oversight of licensed persons almost impossible, and by the provisions of Sections 13-15 it virtually excludes the influence of growing humanitary conscience in the community from being exerted on the persons and places licensed. In short, the Bill would rather seem to be skilfully devised to give a free hand to persons who may call themselves 'scientific,' than to protect living creatures who cannot protect themselves.

The plea put forward by the gentlemen referred