Chapter II: Report of American Anti-vivisection Society, Jan. 1888

"There remain two grounds to adopt: one the total abolition of all experiments; the other the total abolition of all _painful_ experiments. This latter position, which is the one that Dr. Bigelow of Boston and Dr. Leffingwell have assumed, has engaged our attention for a long time; but, after bestowing upon it careful consideration, we feel that we must give it up as impracticable. To secure immunity from pain there must be absolutely perfect anaesthesia. This can be only obtained in two ways: one is by trusting to the experimenter himself to give sufficient of the anaesthetic; the other to insist that an assistant shall be present for the express purpose of keeping the animal under perfect anaesthesia. Now is it anyway likely that either of these conditions would be observed?"