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Illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, 1876.

Why should a peaceful activity like lace-making (see below or lines #277 to #280 of the Snark) have "proved an infringement of right"? This image may have been used to symbolize dissection in context with C. L. Dodgson's (aka Lewis Carroll's) involvement in the vivisection debate.


053· · The last of the crew needs especial remark,
054· · · · Though he looked an incredible dunce:
055· · He had just one idea--but, that one being "Snark,"
056· · · · The good Bellman engaged him at once.

057· · He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,
058· · · · When the ship had been sailing a week,
059· · He could only kill Beavers. The Bellman looked scared,
060· · · · And was almost too frightened to speak:

061· · But at length he explained, in a tremulous tone,
062· · · · There was only one Beaver on board;
063· · And that was a tame one he had of his own,
064· · · · Whose death would be deeply deplored.

065· · The Beaver, who happened to hear the remark,
066· · · · Protested, with tears in its eyes,
067· · That not even the rapture of hunting the Snark
068· · · · Could atone for that dismal surprise!

069· · It strongly advised that the Butcher should be
070· · · · Conveyed in a separate ship:
071· · But the Bellman declared that would never agree
072· · · · With the plans he had made for the trip:

073· · Navigation was always a difficult art,
074· · · · Though with only one ship and one bell:
075· · And he feared he must really decline, for his part,
076· · · · Undertaking another as well.

077· · The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure
078· · · · A second-hand dagger-proof coat--
079· · So the Baker advised it-- and next, to insure
080· · · · Its life in some Office of note:

081· · This the Banker suggested, and offered for hire
082· · · · (On moderate terms), or for sale,
083· · Two excellent Policies, one Against Fire,
084· · · · And one Against Damage From Hail.

085· · Yet still, ever after that sorrowful day,
086· · · · Whenever the Butcher was by,
087· · The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,
088· · · · And appeared unaccountably shy.

And if that was not enough:

273 · · The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade--
274 · · · · Each working the grindstone in turn:
275 · · But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed
276 · · · · No interest in the concern:

277 · · Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride,
278 · · · · And vainly proceeded to cite
279 · · A number of cases, in which making laces
280 · · · · Had been proved an infringement of right.

421 · · But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain
422 · · · · That the Beaver's lace-making was wrong,
423 · · Fell asleep, and in dreams saw the creature quite plain
424 · · · · That his fancy had dwelt on so long.
(from Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's The Hunting of the Snark, 1876)


Links:
o Charles Darwin: www.ipernity.com/doc/goetzkluge/album/370833
o Eva Amsen, Alice's Adventures in Animal Experimentation, 2007-09-19, easternblot.net/2007/09/19/alices_adventures_in_animal_experimentation
o Lewis Carroll, Some Popular Fallacies About Vivisection, Fortnightly Review [London: 1865-1934] 23 (1875 Jun): 847-854; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003.
www.animalrightshistory.org/animal-rights-quotes/literatu...
o On the usage of lace-needles with microscopes see pg. 391 in Darwin, C. R. 1849, On the use of the microscope on board ship, in Owen, R., Zoology. In Herschel, J. F. W. ed., A manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy, and adapted for travellers in general. London: John Murray, pp. 389-395.
"Circular discs of fine-textured cork, of the size of the saucers (with one or two circular springs of steel-wire to keep the cork at the bottom of the water), serve for fixing objects to be dissected by direct instead of transmitted light. For this end short fine pins and lace-needles should be procured; wherever it is possible, the animal ought to be fixed to the cork under water."
darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&i...
o Jed Mayer: The vivisection of the Snark, 2009-06-22: Victorian Poetry (Amazon etext in HTML)
www.amazon.com/vivisection-Snark-fictional-animal-Report/...
o Rod Preece: Darwinism, Christianity, and the Great Vivisection Debate , Journal of the History of Ideas - Volume 64, Number 3, July 2003, pp. 399-419
www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3654233
o Letters on vivisection from/to Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/advanced-search?as-corresp=&as-person=&as-place=&ask-content=vivisection&asv-content=as-body&as-year-from=&as-year-to=&as-set=&as-physdesc=&as-volume=&as-repository=&as-calnum=&as-n=&intercept=adv&asp-page=0&as-type=letter&asdesc=#type=letters&secondKeyword=vivisection&sort=date&itemsPerPage=25&currentPage=1&filterOperand=AND
o People related to vivisection and Charles Darwin: www.darwinproject.ac.uk/advanced-search?as-corresp=&as-person=&as-place=&ask-content=vivisection&asv-content=as-body&as-year-from=&as-year-to=&as-set=&as-physdesc=&as-volume=&as-repository=&as-calnum=&as-n=&intercept=adv&asp-page=0&as-type=letter&asdesc=#type=people&keyword=vivisection&sort=title&itemsPerPage=25&currentPage=1&filterOperand=AND