VIVIPAROUS FISH. It has been mentioned in the articles FISHES and REPRODUC TION that a few species of fishes are viviparous, or rather ovoviviparous, the eggs being hatched within the ovary. An example of this occurs in the viviparous blenny of the British coasts. See BLE.NNY. But it is the common characteristic of a whole family of the order pharyngognathi, therefore designated by the popular name of viviparous fish, and by the scientific name of embiolocidee—a name formed from the Greek, and signify ing mriparous. The general aspect of fisheg of this family is somewhat perch-like; the scales are cycloid, the gill-covers are entire, the lips are thick. On the n.w. coast of America from San Francisco to Sitka, species of this family are very abundant. They come into shallow water near the coasts, when the time approaches for producing their young, which is about the middle of summer. They' swim in vast shoals close to the surface, and have a peculiar habit of leaping high out of the water when alarmed, of which the Indians take advantage to capture them, by striking the water violently with their paddles, and uttering yells. The terrified fish leaping out of the water, many of them fall into the canoes. The Indiani also capture these fishes by thrusting a spear with four barbed points into the midst of a dense shoal. They can be easily taken by nets, but arc not of great value for the table.
term which is employed to designate operations performed with the knife on living animals, with the view (1) of increasing our physiological knowledge; (2) of confirming previously known facts; and (3) of giving dexterity in operative sur gery—is a course of procedure which may be traced back to almost tile earliest periods of medicine and surgery, and was largely practiced in the Alexaadrian school. It is, however, only comparatively lately—about half a century ago. when the barbarous experi. ments of Magendic. Brachet, and other distinguished French physiologists, became known in this country—that the subject has attracted much popular notice; and during the last ten years, attention has been so specially drawn to the atrocities systematically carried on in the great French veterinary colleges at Alfort and Lyous. that a deputation of " the royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals" laid a statement of the facts before the emperor Napoleon. When it is stated that with the nominal object of teaching the veterinary students at Alfort to become skillful operators, six living horses were supplied to them twice a week—that sixty-four operations were performed on each horse. and that four or five horses generally died before half the operations were com pleted—that it takes nearly two days to go through the list—and that all the old exploded operations, as well as those now practiced, were performed—and lastly, wiles it is borne in mind that most, if not all, these operations could just as instructively have been practiced on the dead animal (as is done in this country), there cannot be a doubt that a vast amount of unwarrantable and gratuitous cruelty was carried on in these establishments. Although the subject was brought before the aeoNmie des sciences, and warmly,discussed, the final conclusion was "that the complaints of the London society are totally without foundation; and that there is no occasion to take any notice of them.' We believe that it is only by the veterinary colleges of France that the view is advo sated that vivisection is necessary for the purpose of giving dexterity iu surgical opera tions.* But while all right-minded persons—except the majority of the members of the French academy, whose votes were probably influenced by a feeling of nationality— must concur in the view, that the argument in favor of vivisection utterly breaks down, some go further, and doubt whether any experiments on living animals, performed with the object of advancing medical and surgical knowledge, and of thereby relieving, indi rectly, human suffering, or prolonging human life, are, on moral grounds, to be reg,arded as justifiable. In opposition to this view, it is maintained that, under certain circumstances, and with due restrictions, such experiments are not only justifiable, but their performance becomes a positive duty. It may be observed that, though in stating this controversy the term vivisection is retained, the remarks apply to all kinds of experiments on living animals. It is universally admitted that man may destroy ani
mals for his food, and to furnish him with many of the necessaries and luxuries of life; and most persons go a step further, and see uo impropriety in the pursuit of field-sports. Now, as Dr. Markham argues in his excellent prize essay on this subject, in all these cases of admittedly legitimate destruction of animal life, the infliction of pain is a neces sary ingredient. In some mode(of destruction, the death-blow is dealt at once, and the pain is ingredient, fleeting; while in others the agony of the death struggle is equivalent to aprolonged and painful torture. An ox may be at once stunned, while the animal bled to death suffers prolonged convulsive struggles. The humanitarian, if he be• a sportsman, thinks little of the lingering i pain which a wounded bird or broken-legged hare under goes; nor, if he be engaged n the whale-fishery, does he lament over the prolonged suf fering which the object of his pursuit must sutler before its capture. If, then, man can legitimately put animals to a painful death in order to supply himself with food and luxuries, wily may he not also legitimately put animals to pain, and even to death, foi the far higher and more noble object of relieving the sufferings of humanity, and of prolonging human life? To point out what gain has accrued to physiology (and hence, indirectly, to the healing art) by experiments on living animals, would occupy many pages of this work. It is suflicieut to allude to the facts, that the doctrine of the circulation of the blood, and of the existence of, and circulation through, the lacteals. was thus established, and that nearly the whole of our present knowledge of the func tions of the nervous system has been thus obtained, and could never have been afforded by the most minute anatomical research, and that in consequence of the knowledge thus obtained we no longer divide a motor nerve, and thus paralyze the face, in the hope of relieving tic douloureux; while on the other hand, thanks to the researches of Brown Sequard, Bernard, and others,we can now see our way to a more rational mode of treating epilepsy, various obscure forms'of paralysis,•etc. Without vivisection, we could never clearly have understood the causes of the sounds of the heart, without the knowledge of which the stethoscope would have been useless in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases; nor should we have known anything of the true nature of that mysterious disease, diabetes. The IIunterian treatment of aneurism by ligature, which has saved hundreds of human lives, was worked out by experiments on living animals. The study of anesthetics, which, after prolonged investigation, led to the introduction of chloroform (soon, possi bly, to be superseded by some even less dangerous arrent), was unquestionably accom panied by the suffocation of many animals; but surely no one who can form any esti mate of the vast amount of misery which has been spared to humanity by the general introduction of the use of chloroform into surgical and midwifery practice, can regret the sacrifice. Indeed, the advantage of the discovery is experienced in more ways than one upon the lower animals, since the domestic animals are subjected to its beneficent influence when surgical operations are necessary, and since, in most cases, animals sub jected to physiological experiments are now usually rendered insensible by it. If such questions as—the best means of restoring to life persons apparently drowned—why chloroform sometimes kills, and how those who are suffering under apparently fatal effects can be best recovered—admit, as they doubtless must, of a solution, that solution must be sought for in experiments on living animals. These and a multitude of similar considerations which might be adduced, are sufficient, it is maintained, to lead any unbiased inquirer to the conclusion that experiments on living animals, performed with the object of advancing medical, surgical. or toxicological knowledge, and of thereby indirectly relieving human suffering, or of prolonging human life, are not only justifiable, but a matter of duty.