Life, 1892-08-11 · page 12 of 14
Life — August 11, 1892 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Life Magazine Satire Analysis This page contains two distinct satirical pieces attacking animal cruelty in Victorian society. **"Tid Bits for Humane Readers"** excerpts a Cambridge lecture documenting brutal vivisection practices by medical researchers—cats, rabbits, dogs, and monkeys subjected to organ removal, poisoning, starvation, and brain dissection while conscious. The satire's bite: these experiments yield no medical cures, yet would constitute criminal cruelty if performed by ordinary laborers. **"Why Does Not the S.P.C.A. Society Provide Microscopes..."** sarcastically critiques the hypocrisy of animal welfare advocates. The S.P.C.A. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) ostensibly protects animals, yet stage horses on Fifth Avenue were notoriously starved and overworked. The joke: microscopes would let horses see their meager food rations. The accompanying cartoon shows a dead husband delivered home, captioned "The National Flower" and "As Approved by the Farmers' Alliance"—likely mocking rural political movements while suggesting widespread societal callousness extends beyond animals to human welfare.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHY DOES NOT THE 8, P. C. A. SOCIETY PRO- VIDE MICROSCOPES FOR THE FIFTH AVENUE STAGE HORSES TO GET THEIR MEALS WITH ? of the backs of rabbits, then crush t King's College, London. -LIFE- TID BITS FOR HUMANE READERS. HE following extracts are from a lecture on * Vivisection in Relation to Medical Sci- ence,” delivered by Edward Berdoe, M. R.C. S., etc., at Cambridge. Lovers of animals may be glad to know how the medical fraternity amuse themselves : ‘You may open the abdomens of living cats, guinea-pigs, and rabbits, and apply irritating icals to their exposed intestines, causing what you are pleased to term ‘ peculiar rhythmic movements’ and ‘circus movements,’ but what the unlearned would call violent spasms and convulsions, as was done by Dr. Batten and Mr. Bokenham at St. Bartholomew's Hospital last year. You may dissect out the kidneys of living dogs and cats which you have first paralyzed by curare—the ‘hellish oorali’ of Lord Tennyson's poem, so called because the animal's sufferings are intensified by its use, and it is unable to move a limb, or to bite, scratch, howl, or other- wise interfere with the operator's comfort. You may do this, as was done by Dr. John Rose Bradford, at University College, London. You may infect go cats with cholera poison, and bake numbers of them alive, as did Dr. Lauder Brunton. You may inoculate the eyes of rabbits and guinea-pigs with the material of tubercle, fix glass balls filled with croton oil—a horribly irritating drug—and stitch them into the muscles m amongst their tissues, as did Dr. Watson Cheyne, at You may slice, plough, burn and pick away the brains of monkeys THE NATIONAL FLOWER. AS APPROVED BY THE FARM- ERS’ ALLIANCE. Spokesman : STUMMICK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, Missis DUFFY, WE'VE BROUGHT HOME YOUR HUSBAND. ~ — {Sree HE wuz A LYIN' ON HIS and dogs,as did Dr. Ferrier. You may slowly starve to death animals whose vagi nerves have been cut and stimulated by electric- ity, as was done by Dr. Gaskell, of this Univer- sity, in 1878. You may cut out the spleens and livers from living rabbits, pigeons and ducks, as was done by Dr. William Hun- ter, of St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1888, or do athousand otheracts which in a costermonger or a farm laborer would be termed and dealt with as acts of atrocious cruelty punishable by imprison- ment. But you have not learned the cure for a sin- gle malady which afflicts the human body.” PITCH DARK, comicbooks.com