Mr. Cross was almost mobbed at the Home Office on
Monday by a crowd of excited doctors, who attended to pro- test against the Government's Vivisection Bill. The corridors, as well as the, reception-room, were crowded, and the style of speaking was decidedly heated and ad caplandum. Thus Sir William .Termer said that a man of science would, under the measure, have to be licensed for the purpose of "scratching a tadpole's tail," though one of the main objects of the memorial which the deputation attended to urge, was to get rid of all limita- tion on painful experiments on the mosthighly-organised mammals. Doubtless, Sir William Jenner knew well that no objection at all would be made to excluding all invertebrate animals ale. from the scope of the Bill, and that even "the scratching of a tadpole's tail" without a licence, would hardly lead to serious consequences. But it would not suit the British Medical Association to be left free to deal as they like with creatures incapable of real suffering. They make a great deal more rhetorical capital out of the disabili- ties imposed on them with regard to worms andinsects, than they could possibly get scientific profit out of the liberty to vivisect them. They did not get much out of Mr. Cross, who reminded them of Dr. Lyon Playfair's Bill of last Session, and of the powerful representation they had had on the Royal Commission in the persons of Professor Huxley and Mr. Erichsen, but all to no purpose,—their cry was all for 'a free Vivisecting-table;' which would, however, for most of us, render a free breakfast- table' a very unappetising affair.
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