Life, 1894-07-12 · page 3 of 20
Life — July 12, 1894 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Just Sentiment" - Life Magazine Commentary This page critiques **Dr. James Moores Ball of Keokuk, Iowa**, an advocate for human vivisection (animal testing). The left column argues that sentiment and emotion—not reason—govern human society, and that Ball's push to eliminate sentiment would create a harsh world. The lower cartoon titled "How It Started" depicts a domestic dispute, satirizing Ball's worldview through everyday life: a woman confronts a man about his behavior, suggesting that without sentiment (compassion, morality), human relationships would become transactional and cold. The right-side "Over the Wire" illustrations show birds and spiny creatures with captions mocking Ball's logic—if we eliminated sentiment, even mild shocks might seem justified for "progress." The satire argues that sentiment and human values are essential, not obstacles to progress.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VOLUME. XXIV. LIFE NUMBER 602. JUST SENTIMENT. 2 Co He says, among other things : R. JAMES MOORES BALL, of Keokuk, Towa, is a strong advocate of human vivisection. If the medical profession should not advocate human vivisection, who should ? What are the valid objections to the proposition? There are none. Objections which may seem valid will be found, on investigation, to be merely sentimental state- ments, devoid of argument. To assert that human vivisection will not result in brilliant discoveries is:ynreasonable, because no one has had an opportunity to try experiments on living men and women, To say that the proposition is barbarous, un-Christian, and repulsive, simply shows that the emotional centers of the objector have been unduly developed at the expense of the reasoning faculties, It is not to be expected that people will at once embrace the proposition to turn living criminals into the hands of the physiologists. Sentiment, not reason, rules the world. As a people, the sentimental side of our make-up has had a rank and ‘luxuriant growth ; our neurotic tendencies, the rapid pace we are traveling in our several vocations, and the demands of modern social life, are all such as over-stimulate the emotional and dwarf the reasoning centers, In the discussion of this question, ridicule and sentiment will take the place of argument. * © * Effeminate men and hysterical women will denounce human vivisection. While this may not carry conviction to the great majority of Americans, it at least gives us a clear idea of Dr. James Moores Ball’s conception of “effemi- nate men.” They are thémen who are hampered by sentiment. ‘That includes the man who refuses to surrender the body of his dead wife to a medical HOW IT STARTED. I HEARD YER BROTHER, THE SPARRY COP, WAS UP THERE DOIN’ STUNTS FOR ONE OF THE GORILLERS AS HAD THE.GRIP, Mrs. Regan: Mrs. O'Toole: 1 WAIN'T A NAMIN' NO NAMES, BUT I'VE SEEN GORILLERS UP TO THE PARK AS WAS BETTER LOOKIN’ THAN SOME PEOPLE I KNOWS ON. ~ OVER THE WIRE. “THESE TELEGRAPH WIRES ARE CONVEN- TENT THINGS, ARE THEY NoT?” “YES, AND THESE MILD SHOCKS ARE PER- HAPS RATHER BENEFICIAL THAN OTHERWISE —BuT—" “Goon Lorpy! THING ABOUT THE INCOME Tax.” THIS MUST BE SOME- college for purposes of class demonstra- tion. It also includes the man who lays flowers on his daughter's grave. Dr. James Moores Ball may be right in his contempt for sentiment, and he may show the sin- cerity of his conviction by handing over his dying grandmother to the vivisectors, but we are afraid he is kicking against a very large thing. If there were no sentiment inthis world it would be a nastier place to live in than Dr. James Moores Ball's laboratory now is for an animal without friends.