"Experiment 40.  A strong dog had its windpipe
plugged in the usual manner, and was then
drowned; that is, submerged in water for 4
minutes.  Three-quarters of a minute after its
release it breathed, and in 4 minutes had fully
recovered."  It is recorded that two other dogs
were treated in the same manner, with a like
astonishing result.

When I came to the double performance of
cutting the throat first and drowning afterwards,
I was fain to believe that the force of experimental
surgery for the benefit of mankind could
no further go.  But I was mistaken.  On turning
over the page, I find horrors upon horrors'
head accumulating.

"Experiment 53.  A middle-sized dog was
deprived of air in the usual way, by plugging
the trachea; 1 minute after its last respiration,
the actual cautery was applied by drawing the
cautery-iron, heated to a white heat in a gas-jet,
over different parts of its chest and back.  The
dog died, or rather there were no symptoms of
its recovery."  I will conclude my quotations
from the report with a case of venesection.

"Experiment 58.  A middle-sized dog was
suffocated in the usual way by plugging its
windpipe, and made its last respiratory effort at
2 minutes 45 seconds.  Three-quarters of a
minute after the jugular vein was opened.  The
action of the heart for a time revived, but the
dog died."

Painful as it has been to me to write the
words, and painful as it must be to every person
not quite insensate to read them, I have quoted
all these records of deliberate cruelty, because
the subscribers to the Humane Society may not
trouble themselves to read the annual report of
their officers, and may, therefore, not be aware
of the cruelties which are practised under their
sanction.  Their experiments were not made
long ago, in the infancy of the art of recovering
the drowned; but recently, after all the
symptoms attending such cases had been well
ascertained, and a mode of treatment agreed
upon and laid down.

No one will go so far as to declare that the
slow suffocation of cats and dogs, the cutting
of their throats, the piercing of the ventricles
of their living hearts with pins, are not acts
of cruelty.  But no doubt it will be said by
some that such experiments are justifiable and
necessary in the interests of surgical science for
the benefit of mankind.  Their necessity I
dispute.  A set of rules for restoring suspended
animation in the human body was framed many
years ago, and all the experiments recently made
on animals have added little or nothing to our
knowledge of the treatment of such cases.

In order that the reader may judge for
himself, I will quote the old rules laid down by Dr.
Silvester, and the new rules recently adopted by
the committee of the Royal Medical and
Chirurgical Society, as a result of all their cruel
experiments upon dogs, cats, guinea-pigs, and
rabbits.

DR. SILVESTER'S RULES.

1. To adjust the patient's position:  Place the
patient on his back, with the shoulders raised and
supported on a folded circle of dress, and secure the feet.

2. To maintain a free entrance of air into the windpipe:
Wipe the mouth and nostrils.  Draw forward
the patient's tongue, and keep it projecting beyond
the lips, &c.

3. To imitate the movements of deep respiration:
Raise the patient's arms upwards by the sides of his
head, and there keep them, stretched steadily upwards
and forwards for a few moments.  Next turn down
the patient's arms and press them against the sides of
the chest.  Repeat these measures alternately,
deliberately, and perseveringly, fifteen times in a minute.

4. To induce circulation and warmth, and to excite
inspiration:  Rub the limbs from the extremities
towards the heart.  Replace wet clothing by warm
and dry covering.  Occasionally dash cold water in
the patient's face.

Now for the latest method recommended by
the Royal Humane Society.

1. Treatment to restore natural breathing:  Cleanse
the mouth and nostrils;  open the mouth, draw
forward the patient's tongue, and keep it forward;
an elastic band over the tongue and under the chin
will answer this purpose.

2. To adjust the patient's position:  Place the
patient on his back on a flat surface inclined a little
from the feet upwards; raise and support the head
and shoulders on a firm small cushion, &c

3. To imitate the movements of breathing: Grasp
the patient's arms just above the elbows, and draw
the arms gently and steadily upwards until they
meet above the head, and keep the arms in that
position for two seconds.  Then turn down the
patient's arms and press them gently and firmly for
two seconds against the sides of the chest.  Pressure
on the breast-bone will aid this.

4. To excite inspiration:  During the employment
of the above method excite the nostrils with snuff
or smelling-salts, or tickle the throat with a feather.
Rub the face and chest briskly, and dash cold and
hot water alternately on them.

5. To induce circulation and warmth:  Wrap the
patient in dry blankets, and commence rubbing the
limbs upwards firmly and energetically.  The friction
must be continued under the blankets or over the
dry clothing.  Promote the warmth of the body by
the application of hot flannels, bottles or bladders of
hot water, heated bricks, &c., and on the restoration
of life, when the power of swallowing has returned, a
tea-spoonful of warm water, small quantities of wine,
warm brandy-and-water, or coffee should be given.

The new method being in all essential respects
identical with the old one, it would appear
that nearly a hundred animals have been tortured
by the Royal Humane Society's chirurgical
gentlemen to no purpose.

Man may be justified—though I doubt it—in
torturing the beasts, that he himself may escape
pain; but he certainly has no right to gratify
an idle and purposeless curiosity through the
practice of cruelty.

                 Just published,
      THE FOURTEENTH VOLUME,
        Price 5s. 6d, bound in cloth.