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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1837-1901] Victorian Age » John Clarke

John Clarke

Vivisection Report

letter to the editor, Spectator Magazine

[1884-May-03] John Clarke, letter to the editor, "The Vivisection Report" Spectator 57 (1884 May 03): 582; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003.

That the Official Report on Vivisection is a trustworthy document…is not the case most doctors and all medical students well know.…Any one who wishes to know what the Report is worth should compare the sickening details with the words of the Inspector. The latter draws his information from the experimenters themselves.

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THE VIVISECTION REPORT

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"]

SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. Collier, seems to be under the impression that the Official Report on Vivisection is a trustworthy document. That this is not the case most doctors and all medical students well know. In the year 1882, during which the Report tells us "the amount of direct pain or suffering inflicted in the prosecution of physiological, pathological, and therapeutical researches through the year was altogether trifling, and limited to between 20 and 30 animals, mostly frogs, Mr. Watson Cheyne conducted his tubercle research. He experimented on 68 animals,—37 rabbits, 25 guinea-pigs, one cat, and five mice. Of the 37 rabbits, 28 had tubercular matter, vaccine virus, bits of thread, and other substances introduced into their eyes—six of them into both eyes, a different substance into each for comparison; of the guinea-pigs, 12 had similar substances, and, in some instances, pieces of cork introduced into the abdominal cavity; the cat had something injected into its abdominal cavity, and the mice had diseased matter placed into cuts made in the skin. No anæthetics were used. The account of these experiments if to be found in the Practitioner for April, 1883, and any one who wishes to know what the Report is worth should compare the sickening details with the words of the Inspector. The latter draws his information from the experimenters themselves.

This is merely a single instance in which it is possible from published statements to check the Report.—I am, Sir &c., JOHN H. CLARKE, M.D. 15 St. George's Terrace, Gloucester Road, S.W., April 29th.