(Featured image: “Der Vivisektor” by Gabriel von Max (1883). Lady Justice cradles a small dog while weighing the brain against the heart on her scale)
Experimental Animals, courtesy Solid Objects.
Of Thalia Field’s Experimental Animals, Joyce Tischler, Founder and Director, Animal Legal Defense Fund, writes, “Difficult moral questions always exist—for those willing to tackle them. Fanny Bernard, wife of Claude Bernard, endured at the intersection of the oppression of women, human slavery, war, and most of all, Claude’s victimization of live animals at the altar of science. Hers is a fascinating tale, elegantly told.”
At its heart, Experimental Animals is a book about humans and how we treat animals, how modern science made a decision at a certain moment to base itself on the bodies of animals. This wasn’t a simple or uncontroversial decision, and yet it stuck. This is a story that illuminates that decision. Those interested in learning more, should check out Thalia Field’s interview on Tin House.
