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From J. S. Burdon Sanderson   [8 May 1875]1

49 Queen Anne St

Saturday

Dear Mr Darwin

I have again seen L. Playfair. He is going to ask leave to bring in his Bill on Monday.2

He has had a meeting with Ld Hartismere, but without immediate result i.e. Lord H. has not promised to withdraw his Bill.3 He showed me his Bill this morning with the necessary procedure clauses added and the Definition clauses relating to the words “Animal” & “Experiment”

I hope it may be successful, but am glad to feel sure that even if it is not, it will effectually bar out the other, most objectionable measure.

By next year it is to anticipated that everybody will be wiser: | very truly yours | JB Sanderson

Footnotes

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, 6 May [1875], and by Lyon Playfair’s request to present the vivisection bill to Parliament on 10 May 1875 (see n. 2, below). In 1875, 8 May was a Saturday.,
2
On Monday 10 May 1875, Lyon Playfair requested leave to present a bill to the House of Commons for the regulation of vivisection (The Times, 11 May 1875, p. 6); he introduced the bill on Wednesday 12 May 1875 (Hansard parliamentary debates 3d ser. vol. 224 (1875), col. 542).
3
John Henniker-Major, Baron Hartismere, had introduced another bill on vivisection in the House of Lords on 4 May 1875. The bill had been prepared at the initiative of Frances Power Cobbe (see Cobbe 1904, p. 640). On the differences between the bills introduced by Hartismere and Playfair, see Appendix VI.

Bibliography

Cobbe, Frances Power. 1904. Life of Frances Power Cobbe as told by herself. Posthumous edition. London: Swan Sonnenschein.

Hansard parliamentary debates: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com

Summary

Further discussion of the introduction of a bill by Lyon Playfair on animal experimentation.

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9974A,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9974A.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23

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