Article ID: CBB001320050

Early Modern Experimentation on Live Animals (2013)

unapi

Bertoloni Meli, Domenico (Author)


Journal of the History of Biology
Volume: 46
Pages: 199-226


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Part of a special issue on vivisection
Language: English

Starting from the works by Aselli (De lactibus sive lacteis venis, 1627 ) on the milky veins and Harvey (1628, translated in 1993 ) on the motion of the heart and the circulation of the blood, the practice of vivisection witnessed a resurgence in the early modern period. I discuss some of the most notable cases in the century spanning from Aselli's work to the investigations of fluid pressure in plants and animals by Stephen Hales (Vegetable Staticks, 1727 ). Key figures in my study include Johannes Walaeus, Jean Pecquet, Marcello Malpighi, Reinier de Graaf, Richard Lower, Anton Nuck, and Anton de Heide. Although vivisection dates from antiquity, early modern experimenters expanded the range of practices and epistemic motivations associated with it, displaying considerable technical skills and methodological awareness about the problems associated with the animals being alive and the issue of generalizing results to humans. Many practitioners expressed great discomfort at the suffering of the animals; however, many remained convinced that their investigations were not only indispensable from an epistemic standpoint but also had potential medical applications. Early modern vivisection experiments were both extensive and sophisticated and cannot be ignored in the literature of early modern experimentation or of experimentation on living organisms across time.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

...More
Included in

Article Guerrini, Anita; Meli, Domenico Bertoloni (2013) Introduction: Experimenting with Animals in the Early Modern Era. Journal of the History of Biology (p. 167). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001320050/

Similar Citations

Thesis Shira Dina Shmuely; (2017)
The Bureaucracy of Empathy: Vivisection and the Question of Animal Pain in Britain, 1876-1912 (/isis/citation/CBB762286081/)

Book Massimiano Bucchi; Luca Ciancio; Ariane Dröscher; (2015)
L'esperimento della storia. Saggi in onore di Renato G. Mazzolini (/isis/citation/CBB236977309/)

Article Guerrini, Anita; Meli, Domenico Bertoloni; (2013)
Introduction: Experimenting with Animals in the Early Modern Era (/isis/citation/CBB001320048/)

Essay Review Klestinec, Cynthia; Manning, Gideon; (2015)
A New (Old)Anatomy (/isis/citation/CBB001500380/)

Article Hartley, Beryl; (2010)
Exploring and Communicating Knowledge of Trees in the Early Royal Society (/isis/citation/CBB001022709/)

Chapter Justin Begley; (2022)
Stephen Hales (1677-1761) and the uses and abuses of plant-animal analogies (/isis/citation/CBB734906191/)

Book Generali, Dario; Ratcliff, Marc; (2007)
From Makers to Users: Microscopes, Markets, and Scientific Practices in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (/isis/citation/CBB000950235/)

Chapter Knoeff, Rina; (2009)
Animals Inside: Anatomy, Interiority and Virtue in the Early Modern Dutch Republic (/isis/citation/CBB000952925/)

Article Harvey, Warren Zev; (2012)
Gersonides and Spinoza on Conatus (/isis/citation/CBB001211058/)

Book Asúa, Miguel de; French, Roger; (2005)
A New World of Animals: Early Modern Europeans on the Creatures of Iberian America (/isis/citation/CBB000501530/)

Book Ludovico Pacino Viti; Benedino Gemelli; (2022)
I consulti di Ludovico Pacino Viti (1662-1732) e di altri medici del suo tempo (/isis/citation/CBB178777125/)

Chapter Vita Fortunati; (2003)
La vecchiaia in Shakespeare fra mito e scienza (/isis/citation/CBB558765478/)

Book Robert Jütte; (2013)
Medical Pluralism: Past - Present - Future (/isis/citation/CBB550056258/)

Book Sherman, Claire Richter; (2001)
Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe (/isis/citation/CBB000100309/)

Thesis Newman, Catherine Rachel; (2000)
Graphic bodies: The writing of early modern gender and sexuality (/isis/citation/CBB001562591/)

Authors & Contributors
Guerrini, Anita
Alessandro Menin
Vita Fortunati
Baldassarri, Fabrizio
Begley, Justin
Shmuely, Shira Dina
Concepts
Animal anatomy
Experiments and experimentation
Western world, civilization and culture
Anatomy
Medicine
Animals
Time Periods
17th century
18th century
Early modern
16th century
19th century
Renaissance
Places
Italy
Netherlands
Europe
Great Britain
England
Latin America
Institutions
Royal Society of London
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment