Notes

Abstract

As we went to press last week a case was concluded in the course of which the methods of anti-vivisectionists were again exposed. A Swedish lady, Miss Lind-af-Hageby, brought an action against The Pall Mall Gazette and Dr. Saleeby for alleged libel published in The Pall Mall Gazette. The jury, after listening to sixteen days of talking, gave their verdict for the defendants, and the judge received their verdict with most emphatic and outspoken approval. It has all happened before. There comes an opportunity for legal action: the statements of anti-vivisectionists are brought to the test of evidence on oath; the whole thing is thrashed out in the Law Courts, and the inevitable verdict is given. The Pall Mall Gazette. has done a great service to the nation by thus exposing, once more, the uncharitableness—to say the least—of anti-vivisectionists. The Research Defence Society, likewise, deserves the thanks of lovers of truth. We trust that the public will bear in mind the lesson of this case, and will treat with contempt the methods upon which the obscurantism of anti-vivisection thrives. A campaign which appeals to those who have been least fortunate in the matter of education, inflames passion, stirs up hatred, and delights in imputing evil to men who are devoting their lives to the increase of knowledge of diseases which afflict mankind, may not be stopped on its downward course by the verdict given last week, but the light which was thrown upon it in the course of the evidence will perhaps do something to scatter the thick darkness of prejudice which anti-vivisection requires for its existence.