LEGISLATION AGAINST ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

To the Editor:  —It is reported that during the session of Congress now opening a bill will be introduced to prohibit the use of animals for medical purposes or scientific investigations in the District of Columbia. Doubtless the opposition to this bill from the medical and scientific side will be presented at a public hearing before a committee of Congress; and on both sides personal and private influences will be brought to bear on the legislators. Probably the bill will fail of passage.Will the efforts of the antivivisectionists, who are sponsoring this bill, thereby fail of effect? I think not. Every effort of this sort by the opponents of animal experimentation draws the lines a little tighter. It is now altogether possible that within a few more years their first object will be attained. It will be made illegal and nearly impossible to obtain dogs for experimental purposes or