medicalresearch

                                   MEDICAL RESEARCH

Pro-vivisectionists would have us believe that most medical
advances and benefits came from animal experimentation.
The truth is somewhat different...

DISCOVERY OF BLOOD CIRCULATION

THE CLAIM:

William Harvey, in 1628, used 49 species in his experiments into blood
circulation.

THE REALITY:

Ancient Chinese, in 2560BC, knew from clinical observation, that blood
flowed in a continuous cycle round the human body.

Harvey`s three "hypotheses" on blood circulation came from his clinical
observations and autopsy studies.

DISCOVERY OF THE FUNCTION OF THE LUNGS

THE CLAIM:

Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke, in 1659, placed sparrow and a mouse in an
air pump, and drew out the air. When air was returned in time, the bird and
the mouse recovered.

THE REALITY:

Avicenna, in 10thC, by clinical observation came close to the modern
concept of respiration.

Leonardo da Vinci, in 15thC, from studies of human cadavers, wrote of
human respiration.

Hygens, in 1661, used an air pump and tried to replicate the animal
experiments of Boyle and Hooke - and failed.

MEASUREMENT OF BLOOD PRESSURE

THE CLAIM:

Rev Stephen Hales, in 1733, inserted a 9ft long tube into the arteries of a
horse; and went on to measure the cardiac output of blood in sheep, deer
and dogs.

THE REALITY:

From his animal experiments, Hales believed that once the blood leaves
the heart, arterial pressure becomes less as it travels along smaller
peripheral arteries towards the veins. He was wrong - and his incorrect
theory lasted for almost a century.

J Falvre, in 1856, made the first accurate measurement of blood pressure
of a human, during an operation.

The modern "auscultary cuff" came from the clinical work of Riva-Rocci, in
1895; von Recklinghausen, in 1901, and Korotkoff, in 1905.

TRANSMISSION OF INFECTION

THE CLAIMS:

Louis Pasteur, in 1879, gave samples of chicken cholera microbe to other
chickens and to rabbits - producing a disease. Pastuer gave samples of
anthrax microcobes to rabbits and guinea pigs - producing the disease.

THE REALITY:

Varro, in 100BC, stated that infection was caused by unseen micro-
organisms.
Rusticus, in 100AD, wrote of unseen organisms entering the human body
through the mouth and nose - causing diseases.
Leewenhoek, in 1673, used his microscope to examine micro-organisms and
described bacteria.
Antonie Bechamp, in 1864, wrote that fermentation is due to air-borne living
organisms - 8 years before Pasteur; and bacteria was a genetic or hereditary
material - changing structure and/or function as a result of disease.

Pasteur cultivated germs in a liquid medium, and sowed these from tube to
tube. The germs in the last tube should, according to the belief of the time,
have been diluted, but organisms in the last tube were alive, reproduced
themselves, and were as numerous as the germs in the first tube. Thus,
Pasteur was not only preceded by the non-animal methods of others, but
his own findings had come from test tube studies.