Experiments on Animals

This 1882 work stands as a primary document in one of medicine's most enduring ethical debates. Stephen Paget, Secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Medicine by Research, mounts a vigorous defense of animal experimentation, arguing that vivisection has been indispensable to medical progress. Drawing on historical examples from Galen onward, Paget examines how animal studies have unlocked fundamental truths about human physiology and pathology. He addresses the British Act of 1876 regulating such practices, wrestling with the moral tensions between scientific advancement and animal welfare that remain relevant today. The book reveals a moment when medicine was transforming through experimental methodology, and scientists were actively negotiating what costs their work justified. For historians of science, bioethicists, and anyone curious about how modern medicine's foundations were laid, this is an essential window into 19th-century scientific thought.