To the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette
Sir,—I have no desire to trouble you with a correspondence, but will you kindly allow me room to suggest to your correspondent “Y.” that he is (to use a sporting phrase) “running the wrong fox?” The position I had taken was (to put it into technical form) “not all men of anatomical science are merciful;” the position he is assailing is “all men of anatomical science are unmerciful.” The fact that army surgeons (a race whom I honour from my heart) are often noble and self-sacrificing tells well for the argument he is maintaining; but, so far as concerns the question really at issue, it is irrelevant.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Lewis Carroll