Dear Sir,—

Although I am resolved not to enter into any controversy on vivisection, yet the great courtesy of your letter compels me to answer it.¹ I published my letter to Prof. Holmgren, solely as I thought it my duty to do so, having long deliberated on the subject.—² In a short 2^d letter published in the Times (April 22^d) I have given though too briefly, my reasons for believing that English Physiologists do not deserve the accusations heaped on them.³ The R. Commission was granted not on account of any sufficient evidence of cruelty, but from vague & as I believe unfounded rumours— You quote D^r Hoggan & his published letters w^d have led anyone to suppose that he referred to English Laboratories, but when examined he was forced to confess that he had not seen any experiments performed in England.—⁴ D^r Kleins conduct has always been [illeg] to me, & I suspect that he spoke out of bravado with the intention of studying Englishness⁵ The sole point which I regret in my first letter to the Times is that I did not express more plainly my belief that useless suffering has been & probably is still caused in foreign laboratories; but I positively know so many atrociously false accusations have been published in this country against physiologists, that I felt somewhat sceptical with respect foreign lands.— You quote Zollner as authority but I am surprised that anyone sh^d. trust in his judgment.⁶ Cuvier never attended to Physiology.⁷ With respect to Sir W. Thompson though the greatest of physicists he knows nothing about physiology or biology; & he informed my son, that a lady, who is vehement anti vivisectionist, to whom he had written on the subject had interpolated sentences in his answer & had then published them as coming from him.⁸

Finally I cannot modify my deliberate conviction, that he who arrests the progress of physiology, commits a crime against mankind.—

With my renewed thanks for the courtesy of your letter, I remain Dear Sir | respectfully

To à | M. W. de Voigts-Rhetz | Oberkirch | G. Duché de Baden | Germany

May 14^th 1881