Dr. ALLINSON has said that mass thought, the idea that the majority must necessarily be right, is shown to be a pure fallacy. Any of us who have read our history books knows that majority thought is hardly ever right. Look back over the views which men, and women have held, not only stupid men and women, but, in some cases, the most intelligent and cultured men and women, who have held majority ideas, and had belief in creeds which to us to-day seem absolutely incredible.
Take the witch trials, which are well worth reading, as an example of this extraordinary idea of mass or majority thought. In the days of the witch trials it was not only the uneducated and the unthinking, but the highest legal brains of that age, who had the duty of sifting the evidence in those trials, who one and all believed that witches existed, that they rode on broomsticks, and met at the crossroads the Devil, who came to tempt them, and show them the way to bewitch the rest of the community.
Chief Baron Hale himself said that witches existed and that of this there can be not doubt, for Scripture itself has shown us so, and men women with their own eyes have seen them. To-day, of course, that sounds extraordinary, but it is not one wit more extraordinary than the belief, not only held by the medical profession, but by the public in general, in this illusion called vivisection.
anybody who gives the subject a moments study will see at once that every argument, scientific, moral and social, proves that vivisection is a pure illusion, that it has always been an illusion, and so long as it exists will continue to be an illusion. As I came along to this meeting I read on one of those wayside pulpits these words: “Learn first and then think for yourself.” Now, these meetings are called each year, that we should learn first. They are not profitable unless those who speak, and those who come to listen, having learned first, go out and think for themselves, for this age in which we live suffers the greatest danger from mass thinking.
It is an age of mass production, it is an age of mass everything, and the reason why it is more dangerous in this age to be under a spell of any kind is because science had given us the means and the power of exploiting, if we will, that dangerous thing called mass psychology, and mass thinking. The newspaper of our day, that enormous power which controls the thoughts of nearly every community living under it, is a most dangerous thing not well used.
Broadcasting, a wonderful instrument given by science, but terrible if not properly used by Man, or used to exploit that dangerous thing mass thinking. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, we must think, if ever the world is to think at all to-day, for ourselves. But we must first educate ourselves, learn our subject and then, having learnt it, make up our minds as to what our views shall be. This, and this alone, is true liberty, and this talk about the freedom which we possess to-day is an utter illusion unless we possess the power to learn first, and then think for ourselves afterwards (Applause).
Now, having said that, I would like for a few moments to deal with this question of vivisection. What is vivisection? I do not mean what it is technically, or what it is by the meaning of the dictionary, but what is it as it appears to the public-to the mass thought of the people? It is the belief that by experimenting upon animals who are in the power of man, we can gain some advantage to ourselves.
It is that appeal which is made by the medical profession, it is that appeal which is made by the vested interests which lie behind this thing, and which, in my opinion, is the strongest force which keeps vivisection living to-day. (Hear, hear). It is the appeal, which is strongest to us all.
I do not mean in vivisection, but once those how desire to exploit their fellowmen have found the means whereby they can appeal to that lowest instinct in the human heart-that by the suffering of some other living thing, that by the sacrifice of something which is in our power, we can gain something for ourselves-once appeal has been made it is very difficult to resist when we put to the temptation. We here may think that we are strong, and it has not temptation for us, but we are only a small gathering.
Out in the great world there are men and women who have not learned yet what this thing means. When the hour comes, and they believe themselves to be in danger that is their weakest moment. They succumb, and we should not blame them, nor thank God that we are not as they. In the minds of the public the appeal made on behalf of vivisection is a very plausible example.
You have heard from the two doctors on this platform that it is claimed to be the latest thing in science, which, if science has any meaning, must mean that it must be successful in 100 per cent, of cases. Having claimed that it is scientific, it is shown in practice to be completely futile and also dangerous. Of its futility there can be no doubt.
There is not one thing which has come from the practice of vivisection, so far as I know, and I have given it a very close study, so far as a layman can do it, which has ever been claimed by the strongest supporters of the practice of vivisection which when sifted to the bottom is not shown to be without the slightest foundation if fact, and I make that challenge here and now and am prepared to produced my evidence to anybody who would challenge me in turn. Next, vivisection is an antiquated system. In a world which is new, moving for ever away from the old pre-War world, this antiquated thing is forced upon us by various methods.
But why is it? Why is it that we who must see the change of our generation or else we perish, and who must march with that change, tolerate the continued existence of this wornout decadent thing which is bringing, not only medicine into disrepute, but is challenging the very existence of human life, and human ideals? There is nothing modern or new in vivisection. It is as old as the hills.
Therefore, if we are wise we shall reject it. We shall say the time has come, if it never came before, when this antiquated thing should be relegated to the past. It has no use in the new world which lies before us. Let us get back to realities: let us face the thing properly, and get away from these old ideas which are not only worn out, but bad.
Then I would like to claim that it has no scientific basis, but I do not propose to dwell very long on this, because Dr. Allinson has himself pointed out to you- it was a very good point which he made- that though claiming to be scientific, it fulfils nothing which science demands. Therefore a very superficial study of the evidence produced by vivisectors themselves will show you the wholly unscientific nature of what is called vivisection, and it is fundamentally unscientific because to attempt to argue man to animal is obviously unscientific.
A scientific experiment in any other branch of science must be based upon an exact analogy. What is the use of calling this practice of vivisection scientific when you start upon a healthy animal in a laboratory under conditions prescribed by those who are going to make the experiment, and arguing from the effect upon that healthy animal in any particular experiment to the effect of disease upon a sick man who is in an entirely different condition; he is in a state of ill-health, while the animal is in a good state of health.
The whole conditions of ill-health in man are not stable, they are not prescribed, and they are not in any way, in sense, similar to those in which an animal in a laboratory finds itself. Therefore, in every experiment you start upon an analogy which is not similar and has no relation to the problem you are trying to investigate.
As to its cruelty I need hardly speak. Evidence which no person can deny exists, drawn from the descriptions by the vivisectors themselves of diabolical cruelties associated with these activities. The awful sufferings inflicted upon animals in the laboratory exist in the pages of the medical journals every week. It is not necessary for me to describe them in detail. They can be seen in the columns of our Journal from time to time; the originals can be seen by anybody who wants to look at these medical publications.
No cruelty, no pain, no suffering which the world had ever seen, not even in the middle ages, had equalled or surpassed the terrible things which are done in the name of science on animals in vivisection laboratories. Reading them, to which one almost gets accustomed, the feature which strikes one is the refinement of suffering with which some of the experimenters practise their experiments.
That brings me to the last of my descriptions of vivisection. It is an immoral practice because it is based upon the untenable theory, the immorality of which the whole world is agreed, that the strong can exploit the weak to the advantage of those in power. It is true that spirit still exists in the primitive consciences of men and women, but it is also true that civilization has at least advanced to this extent, that they are not permitted, with impunity, to carry out that immoral doctrine.
