§ 50. Mr. FREEMANasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been called to the further increase in the number of experiments on living animals, especially without anæsthetics, being 300,915 during 1928 and 44,073 more than in 1927; and whether he will consider the desirability of setting up a full inquiry into the matter with a view to preventing this practice, paid for in many cases by public funds?
§ Mr. CLYNESThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The increase of experiments under Certificate A (i.e., without anæsthetics) is largely, if not entirely, due to an increased use of animals for the purposes of standardising drugs for use in medical practice, of diagnosing the diseases of patients under treatment, and of testing the purity of milk and other foods in the interests of public health. The whole question of experiments on animals was very carefully and thoroughly investigated by the Royal Commission on Vivisection which reported in 1912; and I do not consider that a further inquiry is called for.