Overview

The debate about vivisection is over 150 years old yet until this book was published in 1987 there had been few studies of the historical context of the vivisection controversy. This book provides that context. It places the often vehement arguments of pro- and anti-vivisectionists in the wider conflicts over the value of modern science in general. Pro-vivisection has been linked to a scientocratic view of society and at different times also to positivist philosophy, materialism, political radicalism and socialism. Anti-vivisection societies originated at a time when scientists first began to usurp a major share of the ‘estates’ of cultural authority. Idealist philosophy, the suffragette movement and antisemitism have all been linked to the anti-vivisection movement. Such connections show that the controversy’s roots reach deep into broad, cultural divisions, often functioning as a catalyst of wider conflicts in society as a whole.

Full Product Details

Author:   Nicolaas A. Rupke (University of Göttingen, Germany)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.870kg
ISBN:  

9781041163015

ISBN 10:   1041163010
Pages:   386
Publication Date:   01 November 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

1.Introduction Nicolaas Rupke Experimental Physiology and the Vivisection Dilemma 2. Animal Experimentation from Antiquity to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Attitudes and Arguments Andreas-Holger Maehle and Ulrich Tröhler 3. Vivisection and the Emergence of Experimental Physiology in Nineteenth-century France Paul Elliott 4. Marshall Hall (1790–1857): Vivisection and the Development of Experimental Physiology Diana Manuel 5. Moritz Schiff (1823–96): Experimental Physiology and Noble Sentiment in Florence Patrizia Guarnieri 6. Vicarious Suffering, Necessary Pain: Physiological Method in Late Nineteenth-century Britain Stewart Richards Vivisection Debates in National Context 7. Anti-vivisection in Nineteenth-century Germany and Switzerland: Motives and Methods Ulrich Tröhler and Andreas-Holger Maehle 8. Pro-vivisection in England in the Early 1880s: Arguments and Motives Nicolaas Rupke 9. The Vivisection Debate in Sweden in the 1880s Lennart Bromander 10. The Controversy over Animal Experimentation in America, 1880–1914 Susan E. Lederer Special Aspects of the Vivisection Controversy 11. Women and Anti-Vivisection in Victorian England, 1870–1900 Mary Ann Elston 12. Cinema Vérité: The Image of William Harvey’s Experiments in 1928 Christopher Lawrence 13. Legislation: A Practical Solution to the Vivisection Dilemma? Judith Hampson 14. A Select Iconography of Animal Experiment William Schupbach 15. Epilogue Sir William Paton.

Reviews

Original Reviews of Vivisection in Historical Perspective: ‘The fifteen essays in this well-edited volume achieve a uniformly high level of scholarship and a remarkably balanced tone…’ Gerald L. Geisen, Journal of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Volume 63, Issue 4 (1989)

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