be performed without giving rise to pain after the recovery from the operation; and after the section of a part of the nervous system, the resulting degenerative changes are painless.

In the event of a subsequent operation being necessary in an experiment performed under Certificate B., or B. linked with EE., a condition is attached to the licence requiring all operative procedures to be carried out under anaesthetics of sufficient power to prevent the animal feeling pain; and no observations or stimulations of a character to cause pain are allowed to be made without the animals being anesthetised.

In no case has a cutting operation more severe than a superficial venesection been allowed to be performed without anæsthetics.

The experiments included in Table IV. (B.), 90,792 in number, are all performed without anesthetics. They are mostly inoculations, but a few are feeding experiments, or the administration of various substances by the mouth or by inhalation, or the abstraction of blood by puncture or simple venesection. In no instance has a certificate dispensing with the use of anaesthetics been allowed for an experiment involving a serious operation. Inoculations. into deep parts, involving a preliminary incision in order to expose the part into which the inoculation is to be made, are required to be performed under anæsthetics, and are therefore placed in Table IV. (A.).

It will be seen that the operative procedures in experiments performed under Certificate A., without anæsthetics, are only such as are attended by no considerable, if appreciable, pain. The certificate is, in fact, not required to cover these proceedings, but to allow of the subsequent course of the experiment. The experiment lasts during the whole time from the administration of the drug, or injec

tion, until the animal recovers from the effects, if any, or dies, or is killed-a period possibly extending over several days, or even weeks. The substance administered may give rise to poisoning, or set up a condition of disease, either of which may lead to a fatal termination. Το administer to an animal such a poison as diphtheria toxin, for example, or to induce such a disease as tuberculosis, although it may not be accompanied by acute suffering, is held to be a proceeding "calculated to give pain," and therefore experiments of the kind referred to come within the scope of the Act 39 and 40 Vict. c. 77. The Act provides that, unless a special certificate be obtained, the animal must be kept under an anesthetic during the whole of the experiment; and it is to allow the animal to be kept without an anesthetic during the time required for the development of the results of the administration that Certificate A. is given and allowed in these cases.

It must not be assumed that the animal is in pain during the whole of this time. In cases of prolonged action of an injected substance, even when ending fatally, the animal is generally apparently well, and takes its food as usual, until a short time before death. The state of illness may last only a few hours, and in some cases is not observed at all.

In a very large number of the experiments included in Table IV. (B.) the results are negative, and the animals suffer no inconvenience whatever from the inoculation. These experiments are therefore entirely painless.

In the event of pain ensuing as the result of an inoculation, a condition attached to the licence requires that the animal shall be killed under anæsthetics as soon as the main result of the experiment has been attained.

The returns show that during the year 1910, 49,662 experiments were performed by 27 licensees, working at

eight institutions, in the course of Cancer investigations. Of these, 816 are in Table IV. (A.) and 48,846 in Table IV. (B.). The latter are almost entirely inoculations into mice.

A large number of experiments, almost wholly simple inoculations and similar proceedings contained in Table IV. (B.), were performed either on behalf of official bodies, with a view to the preservation of the public health, or directly for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Several County Councils and Municipal Corporations have their own laboratories in which bacteriological investigations are carried on, including the necessary tests on living animals; and many others have arrangements by which similar observations are made on their behalf in the laboratories of Universities, Colleges, and other Institutions. A sewage farm is registered as a place in which experiments on living animals may be performed, in order that the character of the effluent may be tested by its effects on the health of fish. The Local Government Board and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have laboratories which are registered for the performance of experiments having for their object the detection, prevention, and study of diseases of man and animals. In other places experiments have been performed on behalf of the Home Office, the Naval Medical Service, the War Office, the Army Medical Department, the Army Medical Advisory Board, the Army Veterinary Service, the General Post Office, the Local Government Board, the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, the Advisory Committee for Plague in India, the Tropical Diseases and Glass-blowers Cataract Committees of the Royal Society. Eighty licensees return nearly 19,000 experiments which were performed for Government Departments County Councils, Municipal Corporations, or other Public Health Authorities; and seventeen licensees performed over 8,000

experiments for the preparation and testing of antitoxic sera and vaccines, and for the testing and standardising of drugs.

During the year the usual inspections have been made by Sir James Russell, Mr. J. Ryland Whitaker, M.B., F.R.C.P. (who was appointed temporary Assistant Inspector during the indisposition of Sir James Russell), and myself. We have seen numerous animals under experiment, both of those coming into Table IV. (A.) and of those coming into Table IV. (B.); we have everywhere found the animals suitably lodged and well cared for, and the licensees attentive to the requirements of the Act, as well as to the conditions appended to their licences by the Secretary of State. The following are the only irregularities that have occurred during the year

A licensee holding Certificate A. for the performance of inoculations without anesthetics inserted materials which were not covered by the terms of his certificate beneath the skin of five rabbits. The Secretary of State was satisfied that this had been done under a misconception of the scope of the certificate, and by his direction the licensee was admonished.

A licensee who held certificates A. F. given for inoculations and injections reported among his experiments some in which he had administered substances to horses by the mouth. The irregularity was pointed out to him, and he was informed that in such cases procedures must not be adopted that are not specified in the certificates. I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

G. D. THANE,
Inspector.

To the Right Hon. Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill,

Secretary of State for the Home Department.

SIR,

IRELAND

29, HATCH STREET, DUBLIN, March 25, 1911.

I have the honour herewith to submit a report of the particulars of the work done in Ireland during the year 1910, under the Act 39 and 40 Vict. c. 77, together with a list of the registered places in Ireland, and such other information as you desire, or as may be proper to the subject.

Table I. shows that there were 15 of such places, and that in two of them no person was licensed to perform experiments during the year 1910.

Twenty-three licences were in force during the year, of which 21 were in existence at the beginning of the year, and two were new licences issued during the year.

The certificates in existence or allowed were:

The experiments performed were 254 in number, 9 under licence alone, and 245 under certificates. Sixteen licensees