Note 28 — Chapter XVIII · MY LIFE IN LONDON IN THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES. SOCIAL (continued 2)

When our Bill was debated in Parliament in 1883, Mr. Gladstone left us, totally unaided, to the mercies (not tender) of Sir William Harcourt, who interrupted Mr. George Russell’s speech in support of our Bill by the remark that the demonstrations to students, to which he referred, were forbidden by the Vivisection Act. Sixteen certificates granting permission for the performance of such experiments in demonstration to students passed through his own office that year!