Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra Atual Anterior: Miscellaneous Seguinte: Unscientific Science
(p. 290)
TEACHINGS
OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
CONCERNING
OUR TREATMENT OF THE LOWER
ANIMALS
THAT noble and
glorious reformer, Anna Kingsford M. D., (Paris) having passed from the mortal
form, leaving behind her many works of great value which have never been
published or in any way re-produced in America, though the Esoteric Publishing
Company, 478, Shawmut Avenue, Boston, issues a very good edition of her
marvelous treatise entitled, The
Perfect Way, at the moderate price of $2. We
have ventured to incorporate into our present work solve of this saintly and
heroic woman’s carefully digested and eminently scientific views on Unscientific Science which, when contrasted with the human teachings of a gracious and
merciful spiritual science, will serve to show the utter irreconcilability of
cruelty in any form with the work of even physically benefiting humanity. The
most serious attention of our readers is particularly called to Dr. Kingsford’s
unanswerable plea for “philosophic unity” which is expressed in the following
words at the opening of her lecture entitled Scientific Aspects of Vivisection, a lecture
replete with the most valuable and authentic testimony gathered from every
available source in
(p. 291)
“The century in which we live is one of investigation, criticism and thought. Dogmas and traditions are no longer accepted upon hearsay, or even upon authority. Everything is canvassed, discussed, verified, tested by reason.
“The reign of autocratic power seems to be in decadence, and that of philosophic force begins to assert itself. Men are awakening to the fact that the true glory of humanity consists in the faculty of reason, and that that which constitutes the human being is not a special physical conformation, but a mind enlightened, enfranchised, and capable of lofty aims.
“I posit then, this fundamental principle, that the truly human and reasonable life is based upon an exact philosophy. Tile basic idea of philosophy is to reduce everything to Unity; to make of the various facts and diverse interests of our existence a synthesis, a consistent whole, harmonious and equilibrated in all its parts as a sphere of which the radii all converge to one and the same central point. Now it is this condition of equilibrium in the mind which constitutes justness and it is the faculty of recognizing and comprehending time necessity of philosophic unity which is the distinctive appanage of the reasonable and enlightened being.
“It follows from the premiss thins announced that no method of judgment ought to be considered correct which opposes the interests and indications of science to those of morality, which causes discord between the aims and objects of physical welfare and those of the spiritual being, which creates confusion between certain supposed material utilities and the necessities of the moral nature of mankind. From this point of view,
(p. 292)
and guided by this principle of philosophic unity, let us examine the theory and art of vivisection as it is practised by modern biologists.”
Dr. Kingsford’s lecture on “scientific aspects of vivisection” concludes with
the following reference to the testimony of one of the most noted physicians
“Sir Charles Bell, warned by the unfortunate results of his own and others’ experiments, devotes eighty pages of his Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the Human Body (1824) to the study and explanation of clinical and pathological cases. He regards artificial experiments as superfluous and without value in presence of the precious facts which every hospital ward and post-mortem room yield to investigation. And he cites examples calculated to call attention to the fact that frequently the true interpretation of experimental results altogether escapes the operator, because the animal on which lie experiments is incapable of recounting its sensations, and its mere dumb gestures may, as often as not, give rise to false impressions in regard to their cause. In confirmation of this view, he relates many clinical cases of nerve-injury which served as a basis for his researches and discoveries, solely on account of the explanation given by the patients themselves of their personal experiences and sensations.”
Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra Atual Anterior: Miscellaneous Seguinte: Unscientific Science
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