Reprinted from The Medical Record of August 21, 1880. 
THE TWO KINDS OF VIVISECTION— 
SENT [SECTION AND CALL1SECTION. 
To the Editor of The Medical Record. 
Sir :—Is it not time for the distinct verbal recogni- 
tion of the difference between painful and painless 
experimentation upon animals ? 
All well-informed persons are aware that the vast 
majority of vivisections, in this country at least, are 
performed under the influence of anaesthetics ; but 
the enthusiastic zoolaters, who desire to abolish the 
objective method of teaching physiology, practically 
ignore this fact and dwell chiefly upon the compara- 
tively infrequent operations which are attended with 
pain. 
Having read the arguments upon both sides and 
had some correspondence with leaders of the anti- 
vivisection movement, I have been led to think that 
the discussion may be simplified, and a right conclu- 
sion sooner reached, if we adopt new terms corre- 
sponding to the two kinds of experimentation. 
To use words with no warrant of ideas may be 
foolish, but it is not necessarily a mark of wisdom to 
refrain from the employment of terms which have a 
real significance. 
Let rrs consider an analogous case. Aside from 
color and size, the cat and the leopard are almost 
identical, and are commonly regarded as two species 
of one genus. Suppose a community to be unac- 
quainted with the cat, but to have suffered from the 
depredations of the leopard, which they call felts. 
Now, suppose some domestic cats to be introduced 
and to multiply as is their wont. In the first place, 
for a time at least, it is probable that the same 
name, fells, would be applied to the smaller animal, 
with perhaps a qualifying word. In the second 
place, should there be certain persons, both devoid 
of interest in the cats and tilled with pity for the 
mice devoured by them, is it not likely that they 
would endeavor to include the cats under any ban 
which might be pronounced against the leopards? 
Would they not be apt to succeed, especially with 
the more ignorant and impressionable members of 
the community, so long as they could assert without 
contradiction that the “mouse-eater” was only a fells 
upon a smaller scale ? Would not even the reputa- 2 
tion of tlie leopards suffer by reason of the multitude 
of the cats thus associated with them? In short, 
would full justice be done to either animal until 
their differences of disposition should be admit- 
ted to outweigh their likeness of form and structure, 
and be recognized by the use of distinctive names? 
In like manner there are those who ignorantly or 
wilfully persuade themselves and others that all ex- 
periments upon animals are painful because some of 
them are now, and most of them were in former 
times; also, that painful experiments are common 
because vivisection in some form is generally prac- 
tised. It is all vivisection, and as such it is “cruel, 
revolting, or brutalizing.” 
Having waited long in the hope that some candid 
discussion of the whole subject might contain the 
needed terms, I venture to suggest that painful vivi- 
section be known as sentisection, and painless vivisec- 
tion as callisection. The etymology of the former 
word is obvious ; the distinctive element of the latter 
is the Latin callus, which, in a derived sense, may 
denote a nervous condition unrecognized, strictly 
speaking, by the ancients. 
Some idea of the relative numbers of callisection- 
ists and sentisectionists may be gained from the fact 
that I have been teaching physiology in a university 
for twelve years, and for half that time in a medical 
school; yet I have never performed a sentisection, 
unless under that head should be included the 
drowning ol cats, and the application of water at the 
temperature of 60° 0. (140° F.), with the view to as- 
certain whether such treatment would be likely to 
succeed with human beings. 
I think that even elementary physiological instruc- 
tion is incomplete without callisection, but that senti- 
section should be the unwelcome prerogative of the 
very few whose natural and acquired powers of body 
and mind qualify them above others to determine 
what experiments should be done, to perform them 
properly, and .to wisely interpret the results. Such 
men, deserving alike of the highest honor and the 
deepest pity, should exercise their solemn office not 
only unrestrained by law, but upheld by the general 
sentiment of the profession and the public. 
Burt G. Wilder, M.D., 
Prof. Physiology, etc., Cornel] University, 
and Medical Sohuol of Maine.