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88 ct an abomination imported from the Continent,” and 08
cc going hand in hand with Atheism.”*
It is noticeable that not a few of the eminent men who have
pmt.ised vivisection, or are immediately interested in result^, its
express almost equally strong feelings. Mr. Darwin, when asked
what he would think of trying a painful experiment without
anajsthetics, when it could be done as well with them, replied
emphatically, rf It deserves detestation and abhorrence.”
(Question 4,672.) Dr. Sharpey, referring to one of Majendio’e
experiments which he had witnessed in his youth, described it
as “his famous, it might rat,her have been called infamous,’’
experiment (Question 474). Other less eminent witnesses
spoke almost in a similar tone of practices in which they were
themselvss deeply interested.
I hop0 that I should be one of the last to deny that it is
hellish and infamous and detestable, and so forth, to inflict
needless pain on the lower animals. But I wish to ask, If so,
why does society, and English society ‘especially, go on
permitting the perpetrntion of hellish atrocities, on a most
gigantic scale, in their very midst? Why does it allow
practices of this hellish description to bo fnshionable amusements
of the upper classes, patronised by royalty, purchased
at vast cost, commented on by all the daily press, and by a,
number of special journals, as if these amusements were more
important to humanity than all science and art put together ?
Can anybody deny that what is known as qmrt,” or a8
the “noble science,” including hunting, coursing, deer-stalking,
shooting, battue-shooting, pigeon-shooting, and angling, is
from beginning to end, mere diversion founded on the
needless sufferings of tho lower animals? On what sociological
or psychological grounds can we explain the fact that
a comparatively small amount of pain inflicted for the lofty
purpose of furthering science and relieving the ills of mortality
should excite such intense feelings of disgust,, while the
infliction of almost infinitely greater amounts of pain in mere
* Rspwt of the Royd Commission on Vivisection, p. 326,