717. Animal Cruelty; Animal Vivisection;
Mad Scientists
"Among the inferior professors of medical knowledge, is a race of
wretches, whose lives are only varied by varieties of cruelty;
whose favourite amusement is to nail dogs to tables and open them
alive; to try how long life may be continued in various degrees
of mutilation, or with the excision or laceration of the vital
parts; to examine whether burning irons are felt more acutely by
the bone or tendon; and whether the more lasting agonies are
produced by poison forced into the mouth, or injected into the
veins."
Johnson: Idler #17 (August 5, 1758)
Link
718. Animal Cruelty; Animal Vivisection;
Mad Scientists
"What is alleged in defence of those hateful practices, every one
knows; but the truth is, that by knives, fire, and poison,
knowledge is not always sought and is very seldom attained. The
experiments that have been tried, are tried again; he that
burned an animal with irons yesterday, will be willing to amuse
himself with burning another tomorrow. I know not, that by
living dissections any discovery has been made by which a single
malady is more easily cured. And if the knowledge of physiology
has been somewhat increased, he surely buys knowledge dear, who
learns the use of lacteals at the expense of his humanity. It is
time that universal resentment should arise against these horrid
operations, which tend to harden the heart, extinguish those
sensations which give man confidence in man, and make the
physician more dreadful than the gout or stone."
Johnson: Idler #17 (August 5, 1758)
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