Page:Blackwell 1898 Scientific method in biology.pdf/57

This page has been validated.
PRURIGO SECANDI
45

Danger of Inoculation.

The most serious fallacy arising from erroneous methods of biological research is the practice of vitiating human blood, by the introduction of the diseased products of animals. This dangerous method, which threatens to undermine national health, is the necessary outcome of diseasing animals, on the plea of seeking remedies for human disease.

The intellectual fallacy involved in this practice will be considered later; but its ethical character as affecting conscience must here be noted, as it is this line of research which is productive of the most extended form of cruelty to the lower animals, viz., slow torture.

The following extract from records of the Belgian Academy of Medicine illustrates this subject: 'Researches on the inoculability of cancer ought to be encouraged. The numerous experiments made on animals are still contradictory in results. Drs. Francotte and De Rector have, in the years 1891–92, inoculated mice under the skin of the shoulder. The inoculations were carried on from June, 1891, to May,