Vivisection : a speech delivered by Professor Humphry at the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting, Ryde, August 1881.

  • Humphry, George Murray, Sir, 1820-1896.
Date:
[1881]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vivisection : a speech delivered by Professor Humphry at the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting, Ryde, August 1881. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    matter, who know the real importance of vivisection to the advancement of our profession, and the welfare of the com- munity—it was our duty, less, indeed, in the interest of our profession than for the general welfare of the public, that we should speak out and state distinctly what we think. Gen- tlemen, the first argument raised against vivisection is the question Cui bono f—that question which stops so many a good thing—what good has it done ? What good can it do to medical science and medical practice ? To one who surx^eys the progress of medical science from its beginning, this ques- tion seems to be scarcely possible for persons to ask. Why, the truth is, that almost every advance—I am speaking thoughtfully and carefully—almost every advance in our knowledge of the workings of the human body has been made through vivisection. Our knowledge of the movement of the blood, our knowledge of the mode of action of the heart, and of the other processes by which the circu- lation of the blood is effected, of the functions of the ner- vous system, of the functions of the brain, of the several parts of the brain, of the functions of the spinal cord, of the several parts of the spinal cord, of every nerve which passes from the brain and the spinal cord, of the influence of those nerves over every organ and structure of the body, over the heart, over the lungs, over the stomach, over the pulse, over the kidneys, over the bladder, over the skin, over the muscles, is almost entirely due to vivisection. The knowledge of the great processes of secretion, of the functions of nearly every gland, and of nearly every organ, is due almost entirely to vivisection. What has been the influence of this upon medi- cal treatment ? Almost all real great advance in medical treatment has been due to better medical knowledge, and that better medical knowledge is greatly due to the advancement of physiology. Take away the knowledge which we have received through vivisection, and conceive what a chaos would be our knowledge of the human body and our ideas of the treatment of the diseases of the human body ! You can scarcely conceive to what we should be reduced. Every man —in the whole history of medicine—every man who has made real advances in the knowledge of the workings of the human body, has done it through vivisection. From Galen, and Vesalius, to Harvey, to Hunter, to Hope, and Brodie—for this, the most practical of modern surgeons, was a vivisector —every one of these men, and they are few among the many, has made his greatest discoveries through vivisection. And