Does science need secrecy? : A reply to Prof. Porter and others of Harvard medical school / By Albert Leffingwell... With statement concerning vivisection by Prof. W.T. Porter, reprinted from the "Boston transcript."

  • Leffingwell, Albert, 1845-1916.
Date:
1896
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Does science need secrecy? : A reply to Prof. Porter and others of Harvard medical school / By Albert Leffingwell... With statement concerning vivisection by Prof. W.T. Porter, reprinted from the "Boston transcript.". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    17/34 (page 13)
    3. In the majority of published accounts of experi- ments, there is no mention whatever of anaesthetics being used. In a few instances only, there is reference to the ad- ministration of ether before the preliminary cutting, often followed later by use of curare. 4. The majority of these published investigations, so far as I have been able to discover, relate to curious ques- tions in physiology, and have no perceptible relation to the treatment or cure of human ailments. For proof of these statements I refer to the published iiccounts of various experimenters themselves, concerning their own investigations. Most of them may be found in somewhat rare volumes entitled, Collected Papers, Physiological Laboratory of Harvard Medical School. 1. Dr. Ott on the Action of Lobelina. The number of my experiments was six, and all were made on rabbits. . . . Into the left jugular had been bound a canula, through which the poison was injected toward the heart. (Exp. I.) As the injection of the j^oison caused struggling . . . I used curare to paralyze the motor nerves. (Exp. II.) Rabbit, curarized, vagus irritated. (This experiment lasted thirty minutes.) From another series, we may quote the Exp. VIII. Dog ; vagi and sym- pathetics cut; artificial respiration, etc. The above experiments were made in Professor Bow- ditch's laboratory at Harvard Medical School. There is no mention of anaesthetics. 2. Dr. Ott on the Action of Thebain. In all cases of poisoning by thebain, the functions of the sensory nerves remain unimpaired till death, as convulsions are al- ways excited by touch, up to that period. (p. 5.) I have made use of the beautiful method of Brown-Sequard in cut- ting off the action of the poison on the lower segment of the spine, etc. The experiments on the circulation were twenty-six in number and were made on rabbits. . . . Artificial respiration was kept up. . . . Curare was used. Dr. Ott makes no mention of anaesthetics. It is well known, says Dr. Ott, that the irritation