Animals' Rights Considered In Relation To Social Progress, with a Bibliographical Appendix (with) On Vivisection In America

New Yorka nd London: Macmillan, 1894. First American edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. First American edition and first thus containing Leffingwell's essay on vivisection. 12mo. in olive green cloth with spine lettered in gilt and front cloth lettered and lined in black. x+ 176 pp. plus 4 pp. publisher's ads at rear. A tight example, few tiny spots to the front cloth, spine lettering bright, interior clean. Important and seminal 19th century work on animal rights; the author, who has been called "the father of animal rights", states in the prefactory note, "The object of the following essay is to set the principle of animals' rights on a consistant, intelligible footing, to show that this principle underlies the various efforts of humaitarian reformers, and to make clearance of the comforatble fallacies which apologists of the present system have ...accumulated." and from the first line in Chapter I, "Have the lower animals 'rights'? Undoubtedly--if men have." Salt, himself a vegetarian, was the first to argue for actual animals' rights rather than just animal welfare. Among the chapters are, "The Principle of Animals' Rights", "The Case of Domestic Animals", "The Case of Wild Animals", "The Slaughter of Animals for Food", "Sport or Amateur Butchery", "Murderous Millinery", "Experimental Torture". In the essay appended to this volume, Albert Leffingwell addresses the issue of vivisection in both American medical schools and in American colleges, noting the often cruel nature of the practice and urging significant reform.