My dear Mrs. D.
The answer to your two letters to my wife I have pleasure in giving you my
opinion, which you can communicate to anyone, as you may think fit; but I must
beg you to observe that I am not a physiologist & that my opinion can have no
special value.—
I should regret that any girl who wished to learn physiology
shd. be checked, because it seems to me that this science is the best or
sole one for giving to any person an intelligent view of living beings, & thus
to check that credulity on various points which is so common with ordinary men
& women.
I shd look at it as a Sin to discourage any boy from studying
physiology who had the wish to do so; & I make the distinction between a boy
& a girl, because as yet no woman has advanced the science. I believe much
physiology cd. be learned without seeing any experiments performed or any
organ in action; but I do not believe that a person could learn several parts
of the subject with <the> vividness & clearness, which is necessary for well
instructing others, unless he saw some of the organs in action.— All that I
have said here with respect to ordinary students applies with greatly increased
force to medical students; though no doubt very many perhaps most medical
men practice their profession by the mere rule of thumb. With respect to you
not liking a girl to see an animal operated on, though quite insensible, I can
quite understand it & shd. sympathise fully with you, if it were out of mere
idle curiosity; but if a person with a wish <to> learn physiology was thus
prevented, I shd. consider it a weakness.— I may add that I have bitterly
repented this very weakness in my own case, as I cd. not get over my horror
at seeing men dissected when I was young.— Even to take the extreme case of
an animal becoming sensible before the operation was over, it wd take only a
few seconds either to kill it or render it again insensible. Nor can I see the least
reason to suppose it wd suffer more during such few seconds than it wd for
hours during any severe illness to which men & animals are liable. By dwelling
too much on humanity, though Heaven knows this until lately has been a rare
error, do you not think that there is danger of compassion becoming morbid?
Pray believe me, dear Mrs D | Yours very sincerely | Ch Darwin
