Man claims that he is superior, if I may use the word, greater, or higher in the scale of creation, than the animal. If he makes that claim, and if he is to hold it, then he sins against the light when the also claims that he has the right to descend to that other doctrine or practice of using for his own benefit powers which he possesses over the weaker vessel. No greater immorality in the history of the progress of man can be demonstrated. If he is to hold that position of conscious superiority, if he is to live at all as a human unit, he must reform himself in the direction of humanity, and of mercy. (Hear, hear). That alone can save the human soul.
No other thing in the whole history of the human race has ever been of any use. When man has believed that material gain should be his at all cost he has sunk back to the mire and horror of primeval times. But in every instance when he has believed that by sacrifice, by mercy, by justice, he shall live them, and then alone, has he lifted himself up to any level which is worth standing upon. So in vivisection, and anti-vivisection, we face the old problem, we face old moral issues which have confronted man throughout all the ages, but in order that man may realize that power to lift himself up he must, as I said at the beginning, learn first, and think for himself afterwards.
We hear a lot to-day about the freedom and the liberty which we possess, but while vivisection exists, with its power and its strength, and is protected with every means which the State possesses, and every means that science has given us is used to make men learn that this thing called vivisection is useful, good, scientific, moral, and necessary, so long as all the resources of civilization are employed to make men learn and listen, then no slavery which the world had ever seen is equal to that slavery which exists to-day.
Do not let us use words loosely. Words are strange things. Liberty and freedom man must have, but there must be a limit to that liberty and freedom, and I would say that most normal men and women would agree that true freedom and true liberty consist in doing to others as you would be done by (hear, hear), and that those who will not fall into line with that moral principle must be made by law to understand that the world has passed the age when men may exploit the weak because they are strong, and when they can use the sacrifice of any living thing or person to gain a material end for themselves.
That hour has struck, and we gathered here together in this room are helping to strengthen the great ideal, that by sacrifice alone shall man live, but it must be the sacrifice of himself. Thus, ladies and gentlemen, shall we learn first and then be fully equipped to go out and think for ourselves. (Loud applause).
The sensitive index finger of the experienced doctor can give far more valuable information than all the instrumental methods in the world… When I see the modern cardiologist (heart specialist) getting his assistant to take an X-ray photograph of the heart and an electrocardiogram, and even a blood-pressure reading, and then behold him sitting down to study these reports, I am truly amazed. I never could have realized that the practice of medicine could have become so futile and ineffective. SIR JAMES MACKENZIE, The Beloved Physician.
