Defence Society will therefore endeavour to make it clear that medical and other scientific men who employ these methods are not less humane than the rest of their countrymen, who daily, though perhaps unconsciously, profit by them.

The Society proposes to give information to all enquirers, to publish précis, articles, and leaflets, to make arrangements for lectures, to send speakers, if required, to debates, and to assist all who desire to examine the arguments on behalf of experiments on animals. It hopes to establish branches in our chief cities, and thus to be in touch with all parts of the kingdom; and to be at the service of municipal bodies, Hospitals, and other public institutions.

The Society was formed on January 27th of the present year, and already numbers more than 800 members. It is not an association of men of science or of medical men alone; its membership has been drawn from all departments of public life, and includes representatives of every class of educated Englishmen and English women, including many who have taken an active part in the prevention of cruelty to animals. This fact is in itself a remarkable protest against the attacks which have been made on the researches that the Society has been formed to defend.

The annual subscription is five shillings to cover working expenses; but larger subscriptions, or donations, will be gladly received. The acting Hon. Treasurer, pro tem., is Mr. J. Luard Pattisson, C.B. (of the Lister Institute), and an account in the Society's name has been opened with Messrs. Coutts & Co., 440, Strand. The Hon. Secretary is Mr. Stephen Paget, 70, Harley Street, W., to whom all communications should be addressed.

Yours faithfully,
CROMER

(President).

On June 19, 1908, the Society held its Inaugural Meeting, at the house of the Royal Society of Medicine. Lord

Cromer presided, and delivered an address; the other speakers were Sir Thomas Barlow, Lord Robert Cecil, Mr. Walter Long, Dr. C. J. Martin, Sir Henry Butlin, and Mr. Sydney Holland.

At the present time (July, 1911) the Society has about 4,250 Members and 400 Associates, and has formed twentyseven Branch Societies.

The Research Defence Society has nothing to do with the actual making of experiments on animals, nor with advising the Home Office over applications for licences or certificates; nor does it desire to see the abolition of all restriction of these experiments.

The minimum subscription for members, to cover working expenses, is five shillings; but undergraduates and students of medicine are eligible for membership at a subscription of half a crown. Associates pay a subscription of one shilling. A donation of ten pounds constitutes life-membership. All publications are sent to each member, and all short publications to each associate. The Annual General Meeting is held in London in June.

The Society ought to have a larger number of members and associates for its work keeps growing, and the expenditure increases with the work. The Committee greatly hope that all members and associates will help them by enlisting more supporters of the Society, and by taking an active part in the advancement of its affairs. All communications should be addressed either to the Hon. Secretary, 21, Ladbroke Square, London, W., or to one of the Hon. Secretaries of the Branch Societies. They will gladly answer all inquiries, supply literature, make arrangements for addresses and lantern-lectures, and receive names for membership or associateship.

III

PHYSIOLOGY

PROFESSOR STARLING, December 12, 19, 20, 1906

DR. E. H. STARLING, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Physiology at University College since 1899, made a general statement as to the objects and the work of physiology. He then proceeded to speak of the character of such experiments. "It is probable," he said, "that many of these subjects would remain uninvestigated, and the advance of our knowledge on these subjects would not have taken place, if the experiments of which I have given examples involved the infliction of pain-or at least, of pain at all severe. This is not the case. The introduction of anesthetics and new narcotics, and of the aseptic method of operation, into physiology, has well-nigh abolished pain from our physiological laboratories, as it has from the surgical wards of our hospitals. I do not think that the absolutely painless character of the vast majority of physiological experiments is sufficiently appreciated. Records of classical experiments, performed before anaesthetics were invented or had come into general use in laboratories, are too apt to be taken as typical of those of the present day, when the use of anaesthetics is invariable in all experiments more extensive than a simple inoculation. Though I have

any

been engaged in the experimental pursuit of physiology for the last seventeen years, on no occasion have I ever seen pain inflicted in any experiment on a dog or cat, or, I might add, a rabbit, in a physiological laboratory in this country; and my testimony would be borne out by that of any one engaged in experimental work in this country. It is not, however, merely the normal humanity of the operator that should deter the infliction of pain in a physiological experiment. It is the object of the experimenter to limit the field of his experiment so far as possible, so that when he is, so to speak, putting a question to any function of the body, this function shall be unaffected by factor other than that which is being controlled by the experimenter. Of all possible disturbing factors in the body, none can be greater than that of pain. It is a common experience that a slight toothache will upset the processes of digestion; and a storm of pain playing on the different functions of the body would make it impossible to judge how far any result obtained was due to our experimental interference, and how much to the regular actions of the pain inflicted. It is true that the anesthetised condition may be regarded as more or less abnormal. We are able, however, by using different anæsthetics, to vary this abnormality from one experiment to another, and thus to allow for it in interpreting the results of our experiments."

And again: "In the majority of physiological experiments, no pain is inflicted. In a certain small proportion of cases, although we cannot speak of actual pain, the effect of our operative measures may be to cause sickness, followed by the death of the animal. In all such cases the animal must feel ill and miserable, just as it does in distemper. A disease such as diabetes is produced in the animal in order that we may study the conditions on

which it depends, and so learn to control them. Such experiments do not, however, form 1 per cent. of the total number of experiments on dogs. Any legal prohibition, therefore, of the use of dogs for experimental purposes, would deal an irremediable blow to the advance of physiology and medical science in this country; while the only practical result to the dog would be that a few hundreds more would be killed in the lethal chamber at the Battersea Dogs' Home, instead of obtaining euthanasia at the hands of the physiologist."

Professor Starling went on to speak of the value of experimental demonstrations in the teaching of physiology. As examples of such fundamental demonstrations, he mentioned the demonstration of the blood pressure, and its variation under different conditions; the action of the heart, its alteration with lack of oxygen, and its reaction to increased strain thrown upon it by contraction of the arteries; the nervous mechanism of the secretion of saliva; the influence of the normal chemical stimulus on the secretion of pancreatic juice and bile; and the nervous mechanism of the respiratory movements. "None of these experiments," he said, "involve any infliction of pain. The animal is fully anæsthetised throughout, and is killed, while still under the influence of the anesthetic, at the end of the experiment. The student thereby not only gains a knowledge of physiology to serve as the basis of his future medical studies, but he acquires some idea of the methods of administering anaesthetics, and of the dangers connected therewith. . . . We are going to turn out these men with the power of life and death over their fellow creatures, and therefore one has to employ every means in one's power to give them a knowledge of the workings of the organs of the body which they have to treat. Under the present law, experiments are never performed by students for the