knowledgeand possible usefulnessforour species.Blatant
racism has led to painful experiments on other races,
defendedonthegroundsoftheircontributiontoknowledge
andpossibleusefulnessfortheexperimentingrace.Underthe
NaziregimeinGermany,nearlytwohundreddoctors,some
of them eminent in the world of medicine, took part in
experiments on Jews and Russian and Polish prisoners.
Thousands ofother physiciansknew of theseexperiments,
some of which were the subject of lectures at medical
academies.Yettherecordsshowthatthedoctorssatthrough
verbal reports by doctors on how horrible injuries were
inflicted on these “lesser races,” and then proceeded to
discussthemedicallessonstobelearnedfromthem,without
anyonemakingevena mildprotestaboutthenatureofthe
experiments.Theparallelsbetweenthisattitudeand thatof
experimenters today toward animals are striking. Then, as
now,subjectswerefrozen,heated,andputindecompression
chambers. Then, as now, these eventswere written up in
dispassionate scientific jargon. The following
paragraphis takenfrom a reportbya Naziscientist ofan
experiment on a human being, placed in a decompression
chamber:
Afterfiveminutesspasmsappeared;betweenthesixthand
tenthminuterespirationincreasedinfrequency,theTP[test
person] losing consciousness. From the eleventh to the
thirtiethminuterespirationsloweddowntothreeinhalations
perminute,onlytoceaseentirelyattheendofthatperiod....
Abouthalfan hourafter breathingceased, anautopsy was
begun.^121
Decompressionchamber experimentation did not stopwith
thedefeatoftheNazis.Itshiftedtononhumananimals.Atthe