Note 1 — Chapter iii · A SCIENTIFIC SLAUGHTERER

Let us then suppose an academy of anatomists and physiologists; let us imagine a congress at which the question is raised among such men as Flourens,1 Magendie2 and Claude Bernard.3 If we want to obtain both complete immobility of the victim and also its preservation during a long period without going bad, the simplest and most natural idea which comes to us is that of tinned foods. Our congress would suggest the use of some preserving liquid, just as the famous Landes scientist did when he was confronted with his Buprestes; they would attribute exquisite antiseptic virtues to the Wasp’s poison-fluid; but these strange virtues would still remain to be proved. And perhaps the conclusion of that learned assembly, like the conclusion of the sage of the Landes, would be a purely gratuitous supposition which would simply substitute one unknown quantity for another, giving us in the place of the mystery of those uncorrupted tissues the mystery of that wonderful preserving fluid.