Eksperymenty na zwierzętach mają długą tradycję, sięgającą antyku. W czasach nowożytnych wraz z ożywieniem badań anatomicznych w XVI wieku zaczęto je wykorzystywać do wyjaśniania funkcji organów ciała, określenia różnicy pomiędzy ciałem żywym a martwym i obrony koncepcji krążenia płucnego krwi. Dopiero jednak w kolejnym stuleciu podjęto zakrojone na szeroką skalę badania z zakresu fizjologii, w których wiwisekcje stały się kluczowym elementem. Odkrycia dokonane w latach 20. XVII wieku przez Williama Harveya, układu krwionośnego jako zamkniętego układu cyrkulacyjnego, jak również przez Gaspare (...) Aselliego, naczyń limfatycznych, zostały dokonane dzięki przeprowadzeniu licznych doświadczeń na zwierzętach. Eksperymenty te, jak i ich wyniki stały się przedmiotem polemik i debat, które dotyczyły zarówno kwestii wiarygodności uzyskanych w ten sposób danych, jak i etycznej strony przeprowadzonych badań. Artykuł jest próbą opisu tych sporów. (shrink)

Starting from the works by Aselli on the milky veins and Harvey 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. 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. (shrink)

Defining experiment was particularly vexed in the realm of anatomical dissection and vivisection. Was dissection merely descriptive, or something more? Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood and Aselli's discovery of the so-called lacteal veins shaped much anatomical research between the late 1620s and the 1650s. While the techniques of dissection and vivisection gained wide use, there was much debate on the validity of the circulation in particular, and its relationship to the lacteal veins. Critics, particularly the French (...) anatomist Jean Riolan, but also the natural philosopher Pierre Gassendi, focused on the lack of causation in Harvey's method and the lack of medical use and not on his use of vivisection. Jean Pecquet's discovery of the thoracic duct in 1651 changed the terms of the debate by definitively connecting the circulation with the lacteals. Riolan's critiques of Pecquet in the 1650s show profoundly differing notions of the purpose of dissection. While Gassendi eventually accepted Harvey's concept of the circulation, Riolan never did. (shrink)

Summary Fabricius ab Aquapendente commissioned coloured paintings of the reproductive parts and foetuses of a vast spectrum of animals. His published works on generation feature corresponding engravings. In contrast, his student William Harvey questioned the accuracy and usefulness of anatomical illustrations and used alternative approaches to represent his observations. I discuss these anatomists' criteria for selecting specimens, their techniques of investigation, and how these decisions affected their observations and representations of animal generation. I consider what each medium—paintings, intaglios, written accounts—discloses (...) or highlights and also their respective limitations. My study of Fabricius's colour plates also reveals the possibility that they served as inspiration for the first colour anatomical prints: a copy of the illustrations of foetuses is bound with drafts of Aselli's plates, and I suggest a possible link between the colour images. (shrink)