Problem #2 is much less of a problem than you think so long as you keep it in the 1930s. Basically, those notions of human rights didn't exist then and wouldn't exist until the 1970s or so. Here's an example, and that's 1950s and 1960s US. I can also dig up scarier examples that have to do with children. Hospitalized children.
If Augustine presents as a minor, non-Caucasian or otherwise "weird" (even one markedly non-human feature), then you've got a good case for why most everyone won't care that he's kept as something between a prisoner and a guinea pig.
(Also: yeah, there's no way that molecular biology, including genetic engineering, could exist with 1930s mechanical and chemical engineering. But, if you mix magic and science, it can be made to work. If you want to go that way you'll need to check something like Campbell's Biology out of a library, or buy a used copy of an older edition. - a 4th or 5th edition should still be fine for what you need.)
no subject
If Augustine presents as a minor, non-Caucasian or otherwise "weird" (even one markedly non-human feature), then you've got a good case for why most everyone won't care that he's kept as something between a prisoner and a guinea pig.
(Also: yeah, there's no way that molecular biology, including genetic engineering, could exist with 1930s mechanical and chemical engineering. But, if you mix magic and science, it can be made to work. If you want to go that way you'll need to check something like Campbell's Biology out of a library, or buy a used copy of an older edition. - a 4th or 5th edition should still be fine for what you need.)