Animal Rights History »» Victorian Age, Anti-Vivisection, Early 20th C. »» Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

1832-1898

1875-Jun | Lewis Carroll, "Some Popular Fallacies About Vivisection," Fortnightly Review [London: 1865-1934] 23 (1875 Jun): 847-854; [Online Edition: Animal Rights History, 2003]

And when that day shall come…what potent spell have you in store to win exemption from the common doom? Will you represent to that grim spectre, as he gloats over you, scalpel in hand, the inalienable rights of man? He will tell you that this is merely a question of relative expediency, —that, with so feeble a physique as yours, you have only to be thankful that natural selection has spared you so long. Will you reproach him with the needless torture he proposes to inflict upon you? He will smilingly assure you that the hyperæsthesia, which he hopes to induce, is in itself a most interesting phenomenon, deserving much patient study. Will you then, gathering up all your strength for one last desperate appeal, plead with him as with a fellow-man, and with an agonized cry for 'Mercy!'

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