Vivisection

Abstract

IT is with great regret that I inform you, and through you Miss Cobbe and the readers of NATURE in general, that I have been made the victim of a ridiculous and ill-timed hoax. The little anecdate of Miss Cobbe which appeared in NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 459, is, it appears on investigation, quite apocryphal; yet my informant, when relating it to me, asseverated its truth so strongly, and gave me so many corroborating details, that I did not hesitate in saying that “I knew it to be true.” He even ventured to “name” the celebrated vivisectionist whom Miss Cobbe was supposed to have interviewed. Therefore, when doubts began to be cast on the accuracy of my statements, I communicated with this gentleman, who informed me that the whole of this conversation between himself and Miss Cobbe is totally imaginary and never took place. “A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind,” and I am sure Miss Cobbe, having been so often victimised herself, and led to believe ridiculcus tales of hideous and impossible torture inflicted by high-minded, scientific gentlemen, will sympathise with me in my chagrin at finding myself a victim to my own gullibility.