§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the number of persons in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, respectively, licensed to practise vivisection, and how many of them hold certificates to dispense with anæsthetics?
§ * SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThe number of persons licensed at the present time in England is 145, in Scotland 52, in Wales one; the number holding the certificate dispensing with anæsthetics is, in England 86, in Scotland 30, in Wales none. The only figures in my possession as regards Ireland are those for 1895; in that year the number of licensees was six, of whom one held a certificate dispensing with anæsthetics. In giving the hon. Member these figures I may remind him that the certificate in question is never given for operations involving serious pain, but only for such operations as inoculations or hypodermic injections.