GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [6 March 1873]
Title
GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [6 March 1873]
Title
GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [6 March 1873]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Sir Arthur Helps
Date(s)
- 1873-03-06
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [6 March 1873]
MS: Nuneaton Public Library. Published: Correspondence of Sir Arthur Helps, 1917, pp. 345-346.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank | Regents Park.
Thursday.
My dear Helps
As the book undoubtedly will go to a second edition I will tell you what modifications I should like to see in it. Preserving the spirit of your remarks you might say that while recognizing experiment as indispensable to the physiological inquirer (vivisection being only one large branch of experiment) the humane and considerate man would never keep out of sight the fact that he was injuring or paining animals, and therefore would altogether refrain from vivisection when teaching physiology to students unless his teaching were of some contested point and he wanted to prove his position. All established or uncontested results of vivisection should be simply stated, not reperformed in presence of students.
Then too the inquirer himself should consider carefully what it is his experiment is going to prove and whether if successful it will do so. This would save a great mass of reckless inconsiderate experiment.
Finally since there are but few experiments which cannot better be performed on an animal rendered insensible by chloroform ether or chloral the inquirer should never dispense with that mode whenever it is practicable.
The object of your remarks should be to lessen the injury to animals, by instilling more serious views into the operators. I remember at one of the meetings of the Medical Association the Rev. S. Haughton 147 produced a striking oratorical effect -- touching on vivisection -- (all present were alert) he said "I consider that I have a perfect right to subject my dog to any experiment however painful -- which I am willing for science to undergo myself." 148
In great haste ever yours
G. H. L.
If you send me a proof of your modification when made I will annotate it.
MS: Nuneaton Public Library. Published: Correspondence of Sir Arthur Helps, 1917, pp. 345-346.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank | Regents Park.
Thursday.
My dear Helps
As the book undoubtedly will go to a second edition I will tell you what modifications I should like to see in it. Preserving the spirit of your remarks you might say that while recognizing experiment as indispensable to the physiological inquirer (vivisection being only one large branch of experiment) the humane and considerate man would never keep out of sight the fact that he was injuring or paining animals, and therefore would altogether refrain from vivisection when teaching physiology to students unless his teaching were of some contested point and he wanted to prove his position. All established or uncontested results of vivisection should be simply stated, not reperformed in presence of students.
Then too the inquirer himself should consider carefully what it is his experiment is going to prove and whether if successful it will do so. This would save a great mass of reckless inconsiderate experiment.
Finally since there are but few experiments which cannot better be performed on an animal rendered insensible by chloroform ether or chloral the inquirer should never dispense with that mode whenever it is practicable.
The object of your remarks should be to lessen the injury to animals, by instilling more serious views into the operators. I remember at one of the meetings of the Medical Association the Rev. S. Haughton 147 produced a striking oratorical effect -- touching on vivisection -- (all present were alert) he said "I consider that I have a perfect right to subject my dog to any experiment however painful -- which I am willing for science to undergo myself." 148
In great haste ever yours
G. H. L.
If you send me a proof of your modification when made I will annotate it.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [6 March 1873], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95021