HC Deb 06 March 1947 vol 434 c101W
Mr. Peter Freeman

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the number of experiments on living animals that have been conducted for the purpose of cancer research in each of the years from 1939 to 1946; and what were the animals concerned, distinguishing between experiments with and without anesthetics.

Mr. Ede

Statistics for 1946 are not yet available: the other figures for which my hon. Friend asks are as follow:

Year. With anæsthetics. Without anæsthetics.
1939 … 398 26,538
1940 … 781 10,949
1941 … 1,317 14,131
1942 … 3,138 11,162
1943 … 1,417 14,257
1944 … 1,020 20,551
1945 … 140 11,290

I am unable to classify these figures as between the animals used, but the great majority of the experiments—whether with or without anæsthetics—were performed upon mice.