§ MR. G. GREENWOOD (Peterborough)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the certificate under which the experiment on two dogs was performed, referred to by Colonel Laurie in his evidence before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, provided only that the animals should be placed under an anæsthetic of sufficient power to prevent their feeling pain during the operative procedure; that the experimenters retired during the experiment for an interval of half-an-hour, leaving the vivisected dogs fixed to the operating table; that during the interval no operative procedures were performed upon the animals, and that consequently the certificate issued by the Home Office afforded no protection to the dogs from consciousness and sensibility to pain during that interval; and whether, in these circumstances, he will amend the wording of his certificate so as to afford a real and complete protection from suffering to vivisected animals during the whole of all experiments upon them calculated to cause pain.
§ MR. GLADSTONEThe two experiments in question were performed under licence alone, and not under any certificate. The animals were, therefore, required to be kept during the whole of the experiment under the influence of an anæsthetic of sufficient power to prevent their feeling pain. It is stated by Dr. 274 Shore, who performed the experiments, that this was done.
§ *MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)May I ask was the retirement for half-an-hour referred to in the question for lunch?
§ *MR. SPEAKEROrder, order.