Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Century and Anti-

Roberta Kalechofsky for

Descartes' niece, Catherine. A poet of note in her time, her position caused "a little domestic disagreement within the family of the great Descartes, when his brother's daughter espoused the doctrine of a rival philosopher (Gassendi) rather than accept the hypothesis of the beast-machine." Leonora Cohen Rosenfield has written that "her rebellion against animal automatism stands out in startling relief against the general pattern of fervent adoration for her celebrated uncle."2 Gassendi argued for the principle of the "two-fold soul:" that possessed by beings which was immortal, and that possessed by animal life, which was From the moment that Descartes' concept of the not immortal. It was a compromise position between a animal machine-legitimating vivisection-appeared theological difficulty about salvation and a position in philosophical circles, there was opposition to the which would expunge vitalism from the universe and concept voiced by famous women of the era. Madame could, as Bossuet predicted it would, make common de Scudery, a friend ofLeibniz, ran an "anti-Cartesian cause with . These opposing views in the " and wrote a novel praising animal virtue. The interpretation of animal virtue foreshadowed the worldly Madame de Sevigny wrote her daughter: difference two centuries later between , "machines which love, which show preference for the "father" of animal research, and Elizabeth someone, machines which are jealous, machines which Blackwell, the frrst woman to receive a medical degree. are afraid, come, come, be serious, never did Descartes Both beheld the intricate interior of animal life with intend to make us believe that."1 Madame de Scudery amazement. But where Bernard saw the possibilities wittily argues that her , a monkey, a parrot, and a of mechanistic science in the body of the animal, dog, demonstrated intelligence by their affection for her, Elizabeth Blackwell saw evidence of a living God. and she determinedly spoke Latin to her parrot. More Many who were engaged in the crusade against seriously, she wrote: "The tiniest monkey, by its industry vivisection, notably and Anna and intelligence, destroys all of Descartes' doctrines." Kingsford in this regard, understand the struggle in Curiously, it was this "perfection" in which contributed a deadly plank to Descartes' thesis, for he argues that it was animals' showing such perfection that raised the suspicion of their being machines. HISTORY Among the famous, many rejected Descartes' thesis of the "animal-machine:" Montaigne, La Fontaine, Fontenelle, Cyrano de Bergerac. Among the women, OF IDEAS none was more famous for her opposition than

Spring 1992 61 Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

religious terms. Westacott, in his comprehensive survey, appeared on a platform. The propaganda stuck because A Century ofVivisection andAnti-Vivisection, states that it was nourished in the soil of nineteenth century the movement inherited a religious base from Cobbe. 3 stereotypes about women, particularly about the After a spiritual crisis, in which she threw off her "derangement" of intellectual women. family's Orthodox Christianity and embraced Theism, The "ideal" woman was intended to be an adornment Cobbe pointed out in her autobiography that "recog­ for the thirty or more pounds of clothes she wore when nition of the claims of animals had been one of the ftrSt she was fully dressed in waist pinchers which caused results of religious ." wrote: fainting spells and bustles which caused kidney "If it be necessary in order to know . . . that deeds problems. Enforced idleness was the suffocating abhorrent to moral feeling should be performed, then condition of the middle-class woman. It led to chronic obviously Justice is not the essential principle of the invalidism, headaches, and physical weakness, universe, and religion has no substantial basis."4 conditions considered chief elements in the estheticism Proponents of animal research today never address of femininity. In her book Cassandra, Florence the religions aspect of the problem, preferring to Nightingale cried out against the crippling idleness organize their arguments around such terms as "anti­ which dragged women into unreality and fantasy lives, intellectual," "obscurantist," "irrational," and "anti­ not infrequently to madness, the famous female human." These words were used to describe women in "hysteria" ofthe nineteenth century, the prescribed cure the nineteenth century, most particularly intellectual for which was often clitoridectomy and hysterectomy. women who were regarded as desexed. Anna Elizabeth Blackwell accused the medical profession Kingsford's professor at LaCharite refused to record ofhaving castrated 500,000 women in Europe and was her name in his roll book, saying: "You are neither male drawn to medicine because she saw it as a women's nor female; I do not wish to write your name." Men issue. She understood that many so-called "female who opposed vivisection, and this included many diseases" had their roots in the crippling apparel and doctors in the nineteenth century and virtually every lives women led and in the pathological relationship writer and artist, were regarded as "effeminate," which that had developed between women and the medical in tum meant "anti-intellectual," "irrational," and profession in the nineteenth century. "sentimental." The gender aspect of the issue became The century began with the woman as symbol of prominent, while the moral and religious aspects were innocence and purity, a nineteenth century re-invention derided by the advocates of vivisection. Elie de Cyon, of the Roman household goddess and vestal virgin. a prominent physiologist ofthe time, snickeringly asked: Medicine became fascinated with woman's reproductive system during the century, and scientists lectured them Is it necessary to repeat that women-orrather, on their biological destiny, which included the judgment old maids, form the most numerous contingent that learning diminished a woman's capacity to bear of this group? Let my adversaries contradict children. Nineteenth century science was obsessed with me, if they can show among the leaders of the gender and race, legacies bequeathed to the social agitation one girl, rich, beautiful, and loved, domains of our century. Scientists located woman, or some young wife who has found in her according to the evolutionary doctrine of the day, along home the full satisfactions of her affections. the level of the dark races, both being seen as infantile, animal-like, and belonging to natore, while the white Reality was irrelevant to the accusation, for the male belonged to civilization. "Nature," however, was women who founded and led the anti-vivisection not regarded as a benign force but as the omnipresent movement were by and large privileged, loved, dynamic, atavistic possibility to be resisted. brilliant, often socially successful (like Frances Power It was a short step to the identification of women Cobbe) and sometimes uncommonly beautiful, like with animals, and as Cynthia Eagle Russet observes, Louise Augusta Lind-af-Hageby, from Sweden, and the "Kinship with animals raised disturbing reflections, not majestic Anna Kingsford who, with her mass of wavy least the possibility that civilization was not more than golden hair, resembled the ideal of the pre-Raphaelite a thin veneer over the savage self."5 The century ended poets. Buttheirbeauty only inspired further male derision with a significant reversal of view about woman, now and barbed heckling from medical when they fearing her as a femme fatale, a being possessed of dark

Between the Species 62 Spring 1992 Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

animal powers. Throughout much of the century, as to know almost everyone in the English literary and Russet observes, there was "a geography of scientific intellectual world: , the Brownings, , with the most overt and brutal Carlyle, Cardinal Manning, and the Seventh Earl of of being voiced on the European continent.6 Shaftesbury, who became her most important aid in The pronounced presence of women in the anti­ establishing the English Anti-vivisection Society. She vivisection movement augmented suspicion about their could boast with justice that she was pre-eminently in allegiance to the human race and gave rise to the notion a position to speak for the female intelligence since, that to protest animal cruelty is to be "anti-human." excepting George Eliot and Harriet Martineau, she had Frances Cobbe, who had spent her life in social causes known every prominent female writer and artist of her and had worked several years in the slums of era. And indeed she had! responded to this charge with restrained glee. Her intellectual appetite was formidable and versatile. By the time she was sixteen, she was reading Readers who have reached this twentieth Edmund Spenser, Milton, Dante, Homer, the Greek chapter of my Life will smile, ... at the ascription dramatists and historians, and Gibbon. At eighteen she to me in sundry not very friendly publications, underwent a religious crisis and became a Theist. The of exclusive sympathy for animals and total first heretic in a family which boasted of five indifference to human interests. I have seen archbishops, she was banished to Donegal by her father, myself frequently described as a woman 'who awaiting her repentance. He was something of a tyrant, would sacrifice any number of men, women, she admitted, on the model of the Roman patriarch. Her and children, sooner than that a few mother is characterized as a gentle, liberal woman, a should be inconvenienced.' Many good people close companion to Cobbe, whose childhood on their apparently suppose me to represent a personal secluded manor outside of Dublin, with four older, survival of Totemism in England; and to distant brothers, was a lonely one. Recognizing a worship dogs and cats, while ready to consign kindred obstinate spirit in his daughter, her father the human race generally to destruction .... the recalled her from Donegal, whereupon she wrote a years which I spent ... working in the slums of spiritual treatise, Broken Lights, aud a critique of Kant, Bristol, ought, I tbink, to suffice to dissipate Essay on the Theory of Intuitive Morals, (1855). Her this fancy picture.? record of the birth of this work reveals the hilarious and macabre nineteenth century concerns about female This extraordinary woman-of whom E. Westacott intellectuality. has written with disarming simplicity: "An Irish lady, Frances Power Cobbe, must forever be associated in I had all along told my father . . . that I was England with the beginning of an organized movement going to publish a book; of course, anony­ against the cruelties of science,''8-was born in 1822, mously, to save him annoyance. When the a fact which gave her much pleasure, for it was in that printing was completed, the tom and defaced year that the first piece of legislation against animal sheets of the MS. lay together in a heap for cruelty was passed in Parliament. This was "Martin's removal by the housemaid. Pointing to this, Act," initiated by a fellow Irishman. She was also proud my poor father said solemnly to me: 'Don't of her middle name and believed that her power had been leave those about; you don't know into whose inspired by an inscription on her great-grandfather's hands they may fall.' It was needless to chair: "Deliver those who are oppressed from the baud observe to him that I was on the point of of the adversary." It was a chair she came to occupy publishing the 'perilous stuff!' very well, being responsible for legislation affecting women's rights to own property and to sue for divorce The reviews amused her even more, all in the vein on the grounds of physical abuse and for establishing of The Caledonian Mercury "It is a most noble anti-vivisection as an international crusade. performance, the work of a masculine and lofty mind." Cobbe was not beautiful, being corpulent, like When, however, the rumor of female authorship was Gertrude Stein. As a journalist for such well-known confmned, the reviews changed to: "Our dislike is English publications as Fraser sand Comhill, she came increased when we are told it is a female (!) who has

1992 63 Between the Species Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

propounded so unfeminine and stoical a theory .... and mental in getting the first women's property passed, has contradicted openly the true sayings of the living which made it possible for married women to own God!" (Christian Observer). Her comment regarding property, and in getting legislation passed which female disabilities in her was, "The which permitted a woman to divorce her husband for beating concerned women at that date were so frightfully unjust her. Upon hearing that a woman had said that the that the most kindly disposed men inevitably took their legislation which allowed her to divorce her husband cue from them, and looked on their mothers, wives, had given her back her life and made it possible for her and sisters as beings with wholly inferior rights; with to live, Cobbe remarked, "May I not close my eyes on no rights, indeed." this world without doing as much for the animals." Passionately, Cobbe urged women to fight for Cobbe put her faith in legislation, believing that their rights: the importance of the vote was that it allowed human beings to transform vision into law. The vote was not Take the sorrows, the wants, the dangers a right but a duty toward the betterment of the world. (above all the dangers) of our sisters closely With others in the coalition of nineteenth century to heart, and, without ceasing to interest reform movements, she located evil not in a mysterious yourself in charities having men and boys for ontology but in institutions that could and must be their objects, recognize that your earlier career reformed, for as she observed: "In almost every case should be for the weakest, the poorest, those it is only by legislation that the roots of great evils whose dangers are worst of all.... think ofall can be reached at all, and that the social diseases of the weak, the helpless, the wronged women pauperism, vice, and crime can be brought within the and little children, and the harmless brutes; and hope of cure." save them and shield them as best you can; With this optimism she set about, in 1875, to even as the mother~bird will shelter and fight introduce a bill which would reform vivisection. Her for her little helpless fledgelings. This is the persistent belief was that evil was a human activity, and natural field offeminine courage. 9 vivisection, with its insatiable cruelty, was not a gift from God for the healing ofhuman beings but the result Cobbe's early career as a journalist was devoted to of a demented philosophy characterized by what she exposing brutality toward women, described in such called the "dilettantism of discovery." language as "not merely struck, but maimed, blinded, For several decades rumors had come from burned, trampled on by strong men in heavy shoes and continental Europe to England concerning horrendous in many cases murdered outright." Sights she was to experiments being performed on living animals, often witness in her anti-vivisection work forced her to see a unanesthetized. During a visit to Florence, Italy, where parallel between the cOnditions ofwomen and animals, Cobbe had a villa at Bellosquardo, she became involved and she entitled two sequential chapters in her with drafting the ftrst anti-vivisection petition, after autobiography, "The Claims of Women" and "The hearing of grotesqueries at a laboratory at the Speculo, Claims of Brutes." substantiated by reputable eyewitness accounts. But the Throughout the nineteenth century there were porous experimenter denied the accusations or claimed that the boundaries between the various reform causes, and animals had been anesthetized. Then, several years later, those involved in anti-, prison reform, and child in The Morning Post for February 2, 1875. was a letter abuse reform were often the same people involved in by Dr. George Hoggan, a former assistant to Claude the women's movement, anti-vivisection, slum Bernard, who came out of the closet-or more clearance, and the hygiene or sanitary movement, which pertinently out of the laboratory. His lengthy letter gave rise to our modem concept of public health. described the hell that Anna Kingsford was later to Elizabeth Blackwell was a friend of Harriet Beecher find in France: Stowe, and two of her brothers, staunch abolitionists (as was the whole family), married . One of I have often heard the professor say, when one these was , who was also an abolitionist, side of an animal had been so mangled, and and the was Antoinette Brown, the first American the tissues so obscured by clotted blood, that woman minister. Frances Power Cobbe was instru­ it was difficult to fmd the part searched for,

Between the Species 64 Spring 1992 Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

"Why don't you begin on the other side?" or, of Vivisection, viewing vivisection as the crucible "Why don't you take another dog? What is question for the coming century. the use of being so economical?" One of the There is a prophetic peroration in her fmal estimate most revolting features in the laboratory was of the problem: the custom of giving an animal, on which the professor had completed his experiment and We stand face to face with a new vice, new, at which still bad some life left, to the assistants least in its vast modem development and the to practise the finding of arteries, nerves, etc, passion wherewith it is pursued-the vice of in the living animal. 10 scientific cruelty. It is not the old vice ofcruelty for cruelty's sake. It is not the careless brutal His letter pointed out the hypocrisy ofanesthesia which, cruelty of the half-savage drunken drover, the he claimed, was "far more efficacious in lulling public low ruffian who skins living cats for gain, or feeling toward the vivisectors than in the of the classic Roman or modem Spaniard vivisected." 11 watching the sports of the arena with fierce Cobbe immediately contacted Dr. Hoggan. Together, delight in the sight of blood and death. The with Dr. Hoggan's wife, they formed the Victoria Street new vice is nothing ofthis kind .... Sometimes Society in March, 1876, known formally as the First it would appear as we read of these horrors­ Society for the Protection of Animals Liable to the baking alive of dogs, the slow dissecting Vivisection. Cobbe was its head for eighteen years, of quivering nerves-that it would be a relief during which time she published The Zoophilist, an anti­ to picture the doer of such deeds as some vivisection journal, and wrote The Modem Rack. The unhappy, half-witted wretch .... But, alas! this First Royal Commission into Vivisection was formed new vice bas no such palliations; and is in June, 1875. Cobbe introduced legislation to the exhibited not by such unhappy outcasts, but commission and was indefatigable in collecting by some of the very foremost men ofour time signatures on petitions to Parliament, including 2,000 ... men addicted to high speculation on all the clergy from the Church ofEngland and 2,000 members mysteries of the universe; men who hope to of the Society of Friends. The Commission sat for one found the Religion of the Future.... year and interrogated 53 witnesses. Many who gave testimony on behalf of the animals were eloquent, The characters of the Nazi doctors, erudite and learned, and utterly persuaded that humankind had a barbarous, would not have surprised her. duty to itself as well as to animal life to destroy the Bitter and disappointed at the end, she labored in a vivisection movement. From its initial appearance as practical way better than she knew, for the legislation an academic discipline, vivisection had been beset by which was passed at least constrained vivisection in an inherent contradiction: it is an evil which cannot be Great Britain to research purposes and restricted its use halted and for which, therefore, reform is the only for purposes of education or demonstration. Millions possible recourse; however, as Anna Kingsford of animals, at least in England, have been saved from protested, to argue for the "reform" of vivisection is vivisection. Furthermore, the seeds ofher work like arguing for the "reform" ofmurder; to concede the took root all over the Western world, in Italy, France, principle is to concede the argument. Belgium, from Scotland to the United States, with Frances Power Cobbe's faith in legislation and the branch memberships numbering in the tens ofthousands reform process was shattered when her bill went down and world membership in the millions. In Sweden the to defeat, replaced by another which allowed greater establishment of an Anti-vivisection League drew the latitude for the researcher. "The world has never seemed attention of two lively young ladies, Liesa Katarina to me quite the same since that dreadful moment," she Schartau and Emilie Augusta Louise Lind-af-Hageby. wrote. "I was baffled in an aim nearer to my heart than Emilie was the more forward of the two, lecturing and any other had even been, and for which I had strained writing in the Swedish press on social issues which every nerve for months .... Justice and mercy seemed included the women's movement, the problem of to have gone from the earth.'' She became thereafter an legalized , housing, and prison reform. As abolitionist, forming the British Union for the Abolition E. Westacott observes of her, "Her championship and

Spring 1992 65 Between the Species Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

that of Miss Schartau of the cause of the animals was Determined that their opposition to vivisection ... the culmination or blessing of a general humani­ would be respected as medically expert, they entered tarian outlook."12 the Women's School of Medicine in in 1902 Both had been born to comfortable, privileged for degrees and subsequently wrote a book called Eye­ classes during the 1870's. They had been well-educated Witnesses: Extracts from The Diary ofTwo Students of and were enthusiastic about the new scientific Physiology, later called The Shambles ofScience. The discoveries of the era. In 1900, they traveled through book went through five editions by 1913 and ignited Europe and stopped at the Pasteur Institute in France, protests that shook England for years. It became to the the jewel in the crown of science at the time. In an anti-vivisection movement what Uncle Tom's Cabin was address delivered in Geneva in 1926, Lind-af-Hageby to the anti-slavery movement. The focus of agitation recounted the experience: was a chapter called "The Vivisection of the Brown Dog," which gave an account of two experiments by My Anti-vivisection life was born in the Pasteur two professors on the same dog, inadequately Institute in in the year 1900. Together with anesthetized or not anesthetized at all, in violation of my friend and colleague Miss Liesa Schartau I regulations in the 1876legislation that the same animal had decided to pay a visit to this famous centre may not be used for a sequence of . The of . We went to learn and accusation led to a libel suit by Dr. Bayliss, one of the admire. The sights that confronted us were vivisectors. The suit was dismissed for lack ofsufficient startling. We found cages upon cages, vast evidence, but Dr. Bayliss was awarded £2,000 for rooms ftlled with hundreds ofanimals that had damages. A subscription fund of £5,735 was raised for been inoculated with diseases. They were the defendants and presented to Lind-af-Hageby and and dying. The dead lay in some cases Liesa Schartau with a list of signatures, beginning with with the living. Now and then the young and the name of Frances Power Cobbe. amiable man who conducted us through the The historical moment was apt, for the torch was Institute opened the door of a cage, took out passed to two women very capable of following in the dead body of a or a guinea-pig, and Cobbe's footsteps. They founded the provocative and threw it into a pail under the table .... from that influential Animal Defense and Anti-Vivisection moment the fate of vivisected animals became Society, which opened shops in Sloane Street and my constant concern. 13 Piccadilly to distribute anti-vivisection material to the public and the press. The story of the Brown Dog went on to have a startling career. Anna Louise Woodward, the founder of the World League Against Vivisection, raised a public subscription to pay for a bronze statue to commemorate the fate of the brown dog. The statue was erected in Battersea Park across the road from University College. It was unveiled by the Mayor of Battersea on September 15, 1906 and bore this inscription:

In Memory of the Brown Terrier Dog done to death in the Laboratories of University College in February 1903, after having endured Vivisection extending over more than Two Months and having been handed from one Vivisector to another till Death came to his Release. Men and women of England How long shall such things be?

Between the Species 66 Spring 1992 Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

It remained undisturbed for a year, until November Out of the Brown Dog agitation she helped created 20, 1907, when a group ofmedical students decided that an organization allied to the Anti-Vivisection Council, their reputation was being maligned and attempted to The International Medical Association founded in 1905, destroy the statue. Defenders immediately appeared, and with a membership of hundreds of medical men and for a year and a half Battersea Park was the scene of women, "to encourage biological research unconnected almost nightly riots between anti-vivisectionists and with vivisection and all 'scientific pursuits ... free from medical students. The statue disappeared in early the taint ... of a painful and violating kind.' " 15 February, 1908, to the relief of the police, who had In opposition to the gathering strength of the anti­ complained that they could no longer afford to keep the vivisection organizations, Stephen Paget founded the peace. A protest demonstration, attended by thousands, Research Defense Society in 1908 and opened up a shop was held in Trafalgar Square in March, at which Lind­ in Picadilly next to that of the Animal Defense and Anti­ af-Hageby repeated the story of the Brown Dog. Vivisection Society. The credo of anti-vivisectionists, The incident has inspired two books, one by which Lind-af-Hageby wrote in 1908, took note of the Edward Ford in 1908 and more recently, The Old challenge of the Research Defense Society in language Brown Dog: Women, Workers, and Vivisection in that reminds one of Antigone explaining her position Edwardian England, by Dr. Coral Lansbury. The title to Creon, in its appeal to a beyond that of state is an indication of the coalition among classes that and institution: the anti-vivisection cause inspired a century ago. The statue of the Brown Dog has become an enduring The formation of the 'Research Defense symbol of vivisection cruelty, and the struggle against Society' and the promulgation of its guiding it, for it has been rebuilt and put back in Battersea principle ... viz., that 'the small amount of pain Park, where it once stood, erected and protected with or discomfort inflicted is insignificant great passion. compared with the great gain to knowledge The press took note of the riots and the trial which and the direct advantage to humanity' ... had preceded them, and almost all supported the anti­ cannot ... stay or undermine the Anti­ vivisectionists. As notes, we can measure Vivisection Movement. Our cause is above the the moral tide by the fact that few newspapers today objects and principles of the new Society. Our would consider the fate of a dog a newsworthy item or Cause is based on the claims of morality, on "would now champion a dog against a professor, or tbe and ancient faith in a spiritual law uphold the claims of mercy against those ofscience."14 which is above science, health and sickness, The Shambles ofScience was a source of evidence even-though the Vivisector know it not­ during the Second Royal Commission into Vivisection, above life and death. begun in 1906, and Lind-af-Hageby was called to give testimony on four occasions, demonstrating such skill In a lifetime of combatting scientific cruelty and in and knowledge in handling the medical technicalities faith to her spiritual law, she and Liesa Scharlau exposed involved in the experiments she evaluated thatone medical vivisection practices in one institution after another, in wiUless from the opposition stated that he regretted that · the Uuited States and in Europe, and left a legacy of the two girls had been admitted to medical schooL data for anti-vivisectionists with which to confront the Outside the rigorous demands of giving such prevailing secrecy of vivisection practices. testimony, Augusta Lind-af-Hageby was Among other remarkable female personalities in the flamboyant and memorable. As Vyvyan describes her, anti-vivisection movement at this time, Anna Kingsford "She was one of the diminished band of speakers whom was the most memorable to her generation, not only no hooligans could silence .... In those days, she was for her combination of beauty and intellect, but also very good-looking; and when the young demonstrators because there was a somber mysticism to her character. were not releasing stink -bombs or shaking rattles, they She was compounded of rapture and shadow, of light were blowing her kisses. For those with stamina, the and darkness. She believed that she possessed psychic proceedings could be fun; but her response to the kisses powers, and among those who were inclined to agree was blistering scorn. She was a natural orator, dauntless with her was one of her instructors, , a under attack." renowned vivisector. Her thesis for her medical degree

67 Between the Species Dedicated to Descartes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

at the College de MMecine in France was on with the agreement that she would be free to follow her as the perfect, healthy diet for human talents and destiny. He became an Anglican clergyman, beings. It also included a moral evaluation of while she became involved with the vegetarianism, which Charles Richet, with others on and published The Ladies Own Paper. When she her examining board, demanded she delete. They discovered vivisection, it represented for her the concurred that her "scientific" evaluation of nutrition quintessence of evil, and she devoted the rest of her andhuman health was satisfactory, butmoral statements life to combatting it. Like Liesa Schartau and Lind-af­ had to be excised. Hageby, she recognized that a medical degree would Kingsford reinstituted the deleted passages after her confer credibility on her protest. But since there were graduation andpublished the thesis with hercompanion, no medical schools in England that a woman could go , under the title, The Perfect Way In to at this time (she preceded Scbartau and Lind-af­ Diet. The book gave rise to several vegetarian societies Hageby by a few decades), she went to Paris. Because and influenced nineteenth century vegetarian thought. her health was poor, her husband agreed that a friend, Even heropponents were fascinated by her, and Charles Edward Maitland, would accompany her. He became,· Richethosted a vegetarian dinner in honor ofherdegree. in due time, something between an intellectual and In spite of bad health Kingsford had a will of iron spiritual companion, nurse, confidant, protector, and and a rebellious streak which confounded her perhaps lover. The rest of her life and writing is instructors. She was determined never to engage in inseparable from his. She was twenty-seven when they vivisection and to force them to give her a medical met; he was forty-nine and a writer of note himself. degree on her own terms, not only because she loathed Theirs became a deeply collaboratiye life. Though the the practice but also because she wished to prove that arrangement may have been platonic, it was not one could become a competent doctor without recourse conventional. Anna Kingsford found herself barred from to instruction in vivisection. She was passed from membership in Cobbe's organization, as well as other instructor to instructor, as each failed to dissuade her organizations, but in Maitland she found an indis­ from her views, and her six years at the College de pensable support for her feminist and anti-vivisection M~decine were a constant battle. But she was the first work. He was a forerunner of those who believe that Englishwoman to gain a medical degree from the humankind can only be saved by releasing the feminine Facultt de MMecine, and she graduated second in her energies in man. class-and she did it her way. But ofher stay in Paris, She was driven by a spiritual hunger, which led her and in the Colli;ge, so close to the vivisection first to convert to Roman Catholicism and then, laboratories that she frequently heard the animals disappointed by official Catholic teaching on animals groaning, she wrote:. "I have found my hell here." and by its formal dogmatic structure, to tum to She was born in 1846 in Stratford, Essex, to a well­ , where she bad her greatest impact: to-do merchant family. The youngestoftwelve children, Theosophical thought was hereafter identified with at an early age she displayed heightened intellectual vegetarianism and an anti-vivisection position. Both and psychological qualities. She was writing poetry at Maitland and Kingsford belonged to a world unknown the age of nine and getting it published. But she was to Cobbe, and they influenced a public her movement also sickly and suffered all her life from asthma, overlooked, the Theosophical and Fabian societies. neuralgic , headaches, and lung problems, which Anna Kingsford became legendary in her day. When fmally ended her life at the age offorty-two. In spite of she died in February, 1888, obituaries appeared as far bad health, after gaining her medical degree she away as Germany. One admirer wrote: maintained a strenuous lecturing schedule throughout the British Isles, France, Italy, and Switzerland. She Truly she was a peerless and a matchless helped establish anti-vivisection societies in Geneva, woman.... the greatest opponent of vivi­ Paris, Lausanne, and Berne. section, and the most powerful writer against She hadmarriedacousin on New Year's Eve, 1867, it, of any in England. and was blessed with an understanding and liberal husband who recognized that her unusual qualities Vyvyan recounts that ", a Member of demanded an unusual life. They began their the Royal College of Surgeons, described her as the

Between the Species 68 Spring 1992

Species Species the the Between Between 69 69 1992 1992 Spring Spring

distinction distinction in in , conscience, in in rooted rooted was was science science genuine genuine the the animate animate means means the the justifies justifies end end the the whether whether

that that believed believed who who maternalism," maternalism," "spiritual "spiritual as as medicine medicine of of question question moral moral great great the the and and insight insight This This

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all all hygiene." If If and and household household general general drainage; drainage; soil soil to to bad bad disease disease and and health health of problem problem the the and and that that spirit," spirit," 19 19

to to habitations habitations of of relation relation sanitary sanitary climatology, climatology, sewage; sewage; with with impregnated impregnated is is matter matter All All that" belief belief her her expressed

of of disposal disposal disinfectant; disinfectant; and and Sun, Sun, sterilization sterilization the the with with ; clothing; Clothed Clothed she she work, work, her her In In phenomenal. phenomenal.

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air, air, water, water, of of investigation investigation "sanitary "sanitary the the instruction instruction in in learning, learning, and and love love mind, mind, and and heart heart religion, religion, and and science science

gave gave it it and and hygiene, hygiene, of of chair chair a a establish establish to to college college unite unite to to was was her, her, for for Theosophy, Theosophy, of of mission mission The The life. life.

medical medical first first the the Inftrmary. Inftrmary. was was It York York New New and and College College religious religious her her of of point point central central the the was was , reincarnation, of of

Medical Medical In In Women's Women's The The established established Blackwell Blackwell 1868 1868 theory theory a a in in out out worked worked soul, soul, the the of history history The The personages. personages.

work. work. this this in in doctor, doctor, female female Black Black first first the the historical historical its its or or church church historical historical the the about about nothing nothing cared cared

Cole, Cole, Rebecca Rebecca trained trained She She functionaries." functionaries." such such other other She She spirit. spirit. into into phenomena phenomena earthly earthly of of transformation transformation

18 18

of of host host a a and and workers, workers, health health public public workers, workers, social social the the in in alchemy, alchemy, religious religious in in belief belief her her corroborated corroborated

nurses, nurses, district district of of network network vast vast the the of of "forerunner "forerunner transubstantiation transubstantiation of of doctrine doctrine the the But But another. another. of of

the the became became hygiene, which which hygiene, in in women women poor poor instruct instruct instead instead not not but but another another with with and and another another for for suffer suffer can can one one

to to homes homes visiting visiting of of program program a a initiated initiated she she 1866 1866 that that believing believing atonement, atonement, vicarious vicarious and and confession, confession, hell, hell,

In In health. health. public public and and sanitation, sanitation, medicine, medicine, preventive preventive and and heaven heaven resurrection, resurrection, of of doctrines doctrines the the dismissed dismissed she she

stressing stressing England, England, in in Society Society clergy; clergy; Health Health the Catholic Catholic the National National and and Pope Pope the the of of gadfly gadfly the the became became

the the formed formed she she 1871 1871 In In hygiene. hygiene. and and sanitation sanitation to to and and She She existed. existed. have have can can Catholicism Catholicism to to convert convert stranger stranger No No

water, water, clean clean and and rooms rooms clean clean sheets, sheets, things." things." clean clean living living air, air, all all of clean clean solidarity solidarity the the in in belief belief a a precisely precisely is is

to to cure, cure, than than rather rather prevention prevention to to religion religion bygeia, bygeia, as as Christian Christian great great the the health health of of form form popular popular the the of of need need

to to commitment commitment passionate passionate a a Nightingale Nightingale Florence Florence "The "The that, that, earlier earlier written written had had Kingsford Kingsford Presciently, Presciently,

friend friend her her with with shared shared She She disease. disease. this this to to woman woman one one

only only lost lost she she babies babies delivering delivering of of life life long long a a in in and and reverentlyP reverentlyP

fever, fever, puerperal puerperal spreading spreading were were you you themselves themselves towards towards look look doctors doctors I I -trees, -trees, ftr ftr the the above above there there up up

that that teaching teaching Semmelweis' Semmelweis' accept accept to to ftrst ftrst the the among among sky, sky, holy holy the the of of dome dome deep deep Deep, Deep, comfort. comfort. and and

was was she she health health of physician, physician, full full are are You You practising practising a a you. you. As As greet greet I I nature. nature. face! face! of of my my freak freak on on a a

as as street street the the in in children children by by taunted taunted you you feel feel frequently frequently I I was was scents, scents, she she clover clover and and bean bean with with laden laden

where where York, York, New New upstate upstate in in bills, bills, the the School School Medical of of Geneva Geneva spaces spaces turfy turfy the the between between blowing blowing

attended attended She She medicine. medicine. in in degree degree a a wind wind with with sharp sharp graduate graduate to to sweet, sweet, 0 0 ...... height supernal supernal

times times the the of of modem modem in in blue blue woman woman high high first first clear clear the the the the was was in in and and yonder yonder out out Cincinnati Cincinnati

in in mainly mainly away, away, be be raised raised to to was was longing longing Blackwell Blackwell death, death, of eleven, eleven, body body was was this this of she she bars bars when when

States States the the United United against against the the to to came came wild-bird wild-bird which which caged caged a a family family like like wings wings Dissenter Dissenter its its a a in in

children children beating beating and and twelve twelve of of alive alive is is one one spirit my my England, England, in in while while the the 1821 1821 in in all all And And Born Born

illness. illness. my my do." do." of month month eleventh eleventh to to the the ought ought now now is is we we This This what what of of

measure measure a a not not is is do, do, can can we we "What "What elsewhere: elsewhere: And And

following: following: the the wrote wrote Kingsford Kingsford

more. more. nothing nothing but but died, died, she she expedient, expedient, before before be be days days few few a a Yet Yet cruelty. cruelty. human human

at at may may horror horror they they with with useful; useful; be be resonates resonates may may they they research, research, animal animal on on convenient, convenient, be be writing writing

her her like like may may They They work, work, not. not. her her are are about about methods methods writing writing Her Her indispensable; indispensable; treated. treated. are are were were

they they accuracy accuracy which which with with industry, industry, contempt contempt the the observation, observation, did, did, Blackwell Blackwell indispensable; indispensable; Elizabeth Elizabeth

as as are are noted, noted, and and Attributes Attributes medicine" medicine" indispensable. indispensable. considered considered experimental experimental be be of of can can victims victims

pauper pauper In In that that "the "the as as method method sick sick one one no no is is poor poor the the there there Science Science described described She She ages. ages. the the articles. articles.

her her read read who who and and lecture lecture her her heard heard of of who who customs customs those those and and affected affected manners manners the the with with run run Methods Methods

invariably invariably speaking, speaking, or or writing writing in in whether whether language, language, of

great command command her her and and orator, orator, a a was was wrote: wrote: also also Kingsford Kingsford Blackwell Blackwell

met." ever ever had had he he woman woman Elizabeth Elizabeth argument. argument. spiritually-minded spiritually-minded their their of of cornerstones cornerstones the the are are

16 16

most most the the and and beautiful, beautiful, most most the the morality morality and and learned, learned, Religion Religion most most anti-vivisectionists. anti-vivisectionists. of of debate debate

Anti-Vivisection Anti-Vivisection and and Cantury Cantury Nineteenth Nineteenth the the in in Movement Movement Women's Women's The The Niece: Niece: Descartes' Descartes' to to Dedicated Dedicated Dedicated to Descanes' Niece: The Women's Movement in the Nineteenth Cantury and Anti-Vivisection

to what she called "unguided intellectual activity or created what Theodore Roszak has called ''Cartesian curiosity." Almost her first act as a doctor was to establish apartheid,"22 where "styles ofknowing" are estranged a free dispensary in slums. from each other. Knowledge is opposed to wisdom; Blackwell wrote a book on the sexual education of truth becomes only scientific truth; progress becomes children, which she was forced to publish herself, and only scientific progress; reason is opposed to sentiment; other books on such subjects as How to Keep a and science is opposed to morality and becomes Household in Health; The Religion ofHealth; Medicine indifferent to moral arguments. A methodology, an andMorality; The Human Element in Sex; and Scientific intellectual tool claimed to be the established order of Method in Biology. This last book deplored animal things, becomes the only way of knowing. As Jacques research and its effects on students: "The student Maritain observed, "Henceforth, between reason and becomes familiar with the use of gags, straps, screws, mystery, between science and faith, the antinomy is and all the paraphernalia of ingenious instruments inevitable."23 And henceforth, in the nomenclature of intended for overpowering the resistance of the living the nineteenth century, all who oppose animal research creature.... He learns also how easy it is to experiment are regarded as backward, irrational, sentimental-in a in secret"20 word, "womanly." The intellectual edifice identifies In 1859 Blackwell was the first woman doctor to be itself as masculine, science as masculine, logic and entered in the British Medical Registry. During the Civil rationalism as masculine activities, and the medical War her dispensary was almost burned down twice, and profession casts vivisection as the apex ofthe scientific she herself escaped a pro-slavery lynching mob by the esprit de corps. good fortune of someone recognizing her as the woman When Anna Kingsford presented herself at the who was a doctor for the poor. In 1875 she was given College de Medecine as an applicant for the medical the chair ofgynecology in the New Hospital and London degree, one professor remarked that he supposed that School of Medicine for Women. now a woman was going to medical school, "we would Blackwell did not take an active role in the anti­ have to allow sentiment." Her response, given later in an vivisection crusade, but her entire career as a doctor article, was '"They speak sneeringly of 'sentiment.' The contrasted with the growing industry ofanimal research, outcry against vivisection is mere 'sentiment.' Why, in and she wrote in her multi-volume work. Medicine and God's name, what is so great, so noble as human Society in America: Essays in Medical Sociology, that sentiment! What is religion, what is morality, but "The subject of experimentation upon the lower sentiment?" animals, having two aspects-an ethical and an Little has changed in the criticism by the animal intellectual one .... Itmust be recognized that the people research community. Though so radical a doctrine as are absolutely in their right in refusing to submit to the beast-machine could not be advanced without dictation in what concerns their relation to animal life, calling into question cardinal religious principles, such ofwhich they are the responsible head. "21 She counted as the nature of God, of creation, of the soul, and of among her friends and supporters Horace Greeley, teleology, physiologists drew then, and still do, their founder of The New York Tribune, Henry Raymond, arsenal of contempt for anti-vivisectionists from the founder of The New York Times, the abolitionist William woman's movement which, in the nineteenth century, Lloyd Garrison, , Florence crossed the path of the anti-vivisection movement with Nightingale, and Charles Kingsley. historic force.

These are the women, among others, who were Notes called "anti-human," "anti-intellectual," "obscur­ antists," and sentimentalists," as anti-vivisectionists are 1Leonora Cohen Rosenfield, From Beast-machine to Man­ still labelled. The language of the animal research machine: Animal Soul in French Letters from Descartes to community, formulated in nineteenth century misogyny, La Mettrie (Oxford University Press, 1941), p. 163. continues this diatribe. 2Jbid., pp. 112-113. Descartes' determination to render life measurable, quantifiable, and without intimations ofvitalism or soul 3 E. Westacott, A Century of Vivisection and Anti­ gave science its epistemological foundation, but it Vivisection (C. W. Daniel Company Ltd., 1949), p. 24.

Between the Species 70 Spring 1992

Between Between the the Species Species 71 71

NEEDS NEEDS YOUR YOUR SUPPORT! SUPPORT!

PHILOSOPHICAL PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVISM ACTIVISM

of of Ethics

Sample Sample back back issue issue $3.00 $3.00

Quarterly Quarterly Journal

Andison Andison L. L. (Kennikat (Kennikat Press, Press, 1944), 1944), p. p. 80. 80. Berkeley, Berkeley, CA CA 94701 94701

Jacques Jacques Maritain, Maritain, The The Dream Dream of tr. tr. Descartes, Descartes, Mabelle Mabelle

23 23

P.O. P.O. Box Box 254 254

Changing Changing Relationship, Relationship, Daedalus Daedalus (Summer, (Summer, p. p. 1974), 1974), 22. 22.

Son Son Francisco Francisco Boy Boy Institute Institute Knowledge, Knowledge, and and Gnosis," Gnosis," Science Science and and Its Its Public: Public: The The

Theodore Theodore Roszak, Roszak, "The "The

Monster Monster and and the the Titan: Titan: Science, Science,

22 22 $16.00 $16.00 from from

p. p. /bid, /bid, 103. 103.

21 21

sound sound basis basis for for animal . rights.

Essays Essays in in Medical Medical Sociology Sociology Press, Press, p. p. 1972), 1972), 112. 112. (Arno (Arno

philosophers philosophers a forum forum in in which which to to continue continue to to evolve evolve a a

Elizabeth Elizabeth Blackwell, Blackwell, Medicine Medicine and Society Society America: America: in

20 20

deductible deductible contribution contribution -help -help us us guarantee guarantee

pp. pp. /bid., /bid., 415-416. 415-416.

Subsm"be Subsm"be todq todq -and please please send send your your tax tax 19 19

of Elizabeth Elizabeth Blackwell Blackwell (Little (Little Brown Brown Co., Co., 1970), 1970), p. p. 405. 405. & & animal animal rights."- Brad Miller, Miller, Humane Humane Farming Farming Association Association

Dorothy Dorothy Clarke Clarke Wilson, Wilson, Lone Lone Woman: Woman: Biography Biography The The

such such extensive extensive the the examination examination phi/osoplrical phi/osoplrical of basis basis for for 18 18

the the Species Species only only publimtion publimtion uis uis allows allows which which the the Betweea Betweea

Ibid, Ibid, p. p. 153. 153.

17 17

Rollin Rollin and and Sapontzis. Sapontzis.

16Jn 16Jn Pity Pity and and In In Anger, Anger, p. p. 138. 138.

movement?- Think Think of of Regan, Regan, Singer, Singer, CIDrk, CIDrk, Maget Maget

E. E. Westacott, Westacott, p. p. 195. 195. contribution contribution to to the the growth growth of of the the anima/liberation anima/liberation 15 15

Did Did you you know know that that

philosophers philosophers have have olso olso made made a a

/bid., /bid., pp. pp. 57-58. 57-58. 14 14

WE WE ARE ARE TOO •••• ••••

Publications, Publications, 1989), 1989), pp. pp. 31-32. 31-32.

John John Vyvyan, Vyvyan, The The Dark Dark Face Face of of Science Science (Micah (Micah

13 13

Hunting and and Trapping? Trapping?

p. p. 189. 189. /bid., /bid., 12 12

__.....- Vivisection? Vivisection? ? Zoos?

E. E. Westacott, Westacott, p. p. 31. 31.

11 11

Furs? Furs? Factory Factory Farming? Farming?

p. p. 1988), 1988), 77. 77.

John John Vyvyan, Vyvyan, In In Pity Pity and and In In Anger Anger (Micah (Micah Publications, Publications,

Wildlife Conservation? Conservation? 10 10

The The Life Life of Frances Frances By By Power Power Cobbe Cobbe Herself, Herself, p. p. 554. 554.

9 9 Concerned Concerned about about

E. E. Westacott, Westacott, p. p. 24. 24.

8 8

Mifflin, Mifflin, 1894), 1894), p. p. 556. 556.

Life Life of Power Power Frances By By The The Cobbe Cobbe Herself(Houghton Herself(Houghton

7 7

p. p. 190. 190. Ibid., Ibid.,

6 6

1989), 1989), p. p. 297. 297.

Construction Construction of of Womanhood Womanhood (Harvard (Harvard University University Press, Press,

Cynthia Cynthia Eagle Eagle Russet, Russet, Sexual Sexual Science: Science: The The Victorian Victorian

5 5

pp. pp. 170-171. 170-171. Ibid, Ibid, 4 4

Dedicated Dedicated to to Descanes' Descanes' Niece: Niece: The The Women's Women's Movement Movement in in the the Nineteenth Nineteenth Cantury Cantury and and Anti-Vivisection Anti-Vivisection