§ MR. MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the fact that in the Return showing the number of experiments performed in the year 1895 on the bodies of living animals in these countries, amounting in all to 4,679, of which 3,119 were performed under special certificates dispensing with anæsthetics, the term "experiment" means the whole series of experiments carried out on a particular line of research, and that 200 or 300 animals are at times used in a single experiment, while 80 or 90 is a common number, whether there is any record kept of the number of animals used in the 4,679 experiments of 1895; and whether he will, under the powers conferred upon him by 39 and 40 Vic., c. 77, s. 9, direct that the vivisectors, in making reports for the Vivisectors' Return for 1896, will state the number of animals used in each experiment?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThe hon. Member is under an entire misapprehension. The number of animals used does not exceed the number of experiments given in the return. In fact it is less.
§ MR. MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Inspectors appointed under 39 and 40 Vic., c. 77, for the purpose of securing a compliance with the provisions of that Act to visit places registered for vivisection, do in fact visit such places during the performance of experiments on the bodies of living animals; whether they inspect the bodies of the vivisected animals after the performance of these experiments, or are usually present at vivisection, and do they usually see the bodies of the vivisected animals; have the Inspectors any power to mitigate or prevent the infliction of pain on animals by vivisectors who experiment under Special Certificate A, which permits its holder to 564 experiment without anæsthetics; and will he state in what degree or to what extent inspection operates as a prevention of unnecessary pain being inflicted on living animals?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThe Inspectors both visit registered premises during the performance of these experiments and see the bodies of animals upon which experiments have been performed. Certificate A is never allowed except for inoculations and similar trivial operations, and in every case a condition is attached to prevent unnecessary pain. The safeguards against the infliction of unnecessary pain are the character of the persons to whom licences are given, the careful inquiry that is made by the Home Office beforehand, and, lastly, the stringent conditions under which licences are given and certificates allowed, and which it is the duty of the Inspectors to see properly observed.