Vivisection Upheld

The Codes Committee of the New York Assembly voted unanimously to kill the Cotillo-Leininger bills, designed to prevent medical "experimentation " on children or animals, after a spirited hearing at which prominent witnesses appeared on both sides. Former State Senator Charles W. Walton, Mrs. Belle De Rivera of the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. George Arliss, Mrs. Diana Belais, and others, for the " anti-vivisectionists," appealed to the legislators to prevent alleged horrible practices on poor orphan children.

Dr. Simon Flexner, of the Rockefeller Institute, Dr. William H. Park, director of the New York City Health Department Laboratory, Dr. Walter Niles, dean of Cornell University Medical College, Dr. Mathias Nicoll, Jr., Deputy State Health Commissioner, and other scientific men declared in favor of continued experimentation. " The origin of these bills," Dr. Flexner declared, " is based on ignorance. If enacted into law they would strike at the roots of development in medical science! "

The National Health Council, federation of the leading voluntary health agencies, recently went on record in a resolution presented by Dr. George W. McCoy, of the United States Public Health Service, that "restriction of the proper use of animals for experimental purposes is unnecessary, unwise, and against the best interests of medical science and public health."