Page:OntheConductofMantoInferiorAnimals.pdf/49

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ANATOMISTS.

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 pays too much for knowledge when he learns the use of the lacteals at the expense of his humanity.

The faithful dog (whose attachment and gratitude are exemplary and worthy the imitation of man, when with a farmer or country 'squire, is well fed, and has no great cause of complaint, except on account of the loss of his ears and tail, which were lopt off to improve nature; and on account of now and then a bruise or broken rib, from gentle spurns: but if the poor quadruped falls into the hands of a tanner, an anatomist, or experimental philosopher, alas! of what avail are his good qualities? These canine un fortunates are frequently tortured for the good of mankind! Some have their throats cut to prove the efficacy of a styptic, others are bled to death for a philosophical effusion, and many animals resign their breath in the receiver of an air-pump. Unfortunate animals!

It is impossible to read tho experiments made by Browne Langrish, read before the Royal Society, and published in 1746, under the title of "Physical Experiments on Brutes," without sensations of horror. After the injection of various corrosive menstruums in to the bladders of dogs, they were hung, for the sake of examination; but others died in the most dreadful convulsions. The stomach of a dog was cut out while alive, in order to try whether the liquor Gastricus would be coagulated by it. But the most dreadful of his experiments are those made on dogs, to ascertain by what means the fumes of sulphur destroy an animal body. He cut asunder the wind-