Abstract
THE Bill for the prevention of cruelty in experiments on animals, made for the purpose of scientific discovery, prepared and brought forward by Mr. Lyon Play-fair, Mr. Spencer Walpole, and Mr. Evelyn Ashley, is of a very different character from that introduced by Lord Hartismere in the House of Lords and commented on in our last issue (NATURE, vol. xii. p. 21). In it no legislative interference is proposed in the case of operations performed for scientific purposes under the influence of anæsthetics, provided that the insensibility is continued throughout the experiment; immediately after which the animal is to be killed if it has been in any way seriously injured. In the case of operations performed on animals in which it is impossible to employ anæsthetics, it is proposed that those who wish to conduct them shall be required to obtain a license authorising their undertaking them, to obtain which from the Secretary of State a certificate must be produced signed by one at least of the following persons, viz.: the President of the Royal Society, or the Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians or Surgeons of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin; and also by a Professor of Physiology, Medicine, or Anatomy in Great Britain. In the case of the applicant being himself one of the just-named professors, or an authorised lecturer on the same subjects, such a certificate is not to be required, but in its place his application would have to be signed by the registrar, president, principal, or secretary of the university or college with which he is connected. The license requires renewal each five years, except in the case of professors, with whom it lasts during their tenure of office. It extends to any person assisting the holder of the license, provided that the person assisting acts in the presence and under the direction of the holder of the license.
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The Commons Experiments on Animals Bill . Nature 12, 52 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/012052a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/012052a0