Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/54

 I have seen it recorded that Harvey experimented by injection into the vessels when in his seventyfourth year.

It is hardly necessary for me to defend or to justify the practice of vivisection before this College, which has already been done in previous Orations with great thoroughness and ability. On this matter the College itself has also spoken out with no uncertain sound, though not rashly or without due consideration. In confirmation of this statement I need only remind you of the way in which the question was dealt with last year, referred from the Home Office, as to the necessity for experiments on living anæsthetised animals for the adequate teaching of Pharmacology to students. The matter was referred to a representative committee in January 1904. In their report they affirmed that the subject of Pharmacology can only be taught with the aid of demonstrations, involving experiments on living animals; and that, in relation to the prevention and cure of disease, no branch of medicine is so immediately and directly connected with experiments as that of Pharmacology, or the action of remedies. They further reported that, "In the opinion of the Committee experiments on living animals are already so carefully safeguarded by the Act (39 & 40 Victoria), that it may be safely left to the discretion of the individual teachers of Pharmacology how far, and in what way, they should make use of