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PICTORIAL HISTORY of VIVISECTION
17th C

   1622: Gasapare Aselli opened up a dog which was digesting
   food and is said to have discovered the lactreals (lymphatic
   vessels in the mesmentary). From this experiment, it is
   claimed that Aselli demonstrated the flow of chyle (the
   nutrient product of digested food from the intestines to
   the blood).
                                                        picture: 1667.
                                                       Aselli experimenting on
                                                       a dog.

   Lacteral vessels were observed in 1628 in an autopsy on
   an executed prisoner.


   Aselli conducted further animal experiments and concluded that the lactreals united
   in the pancreas and then continued to the liver. Aselli was wrong.

   Bartholini (1616-1680) dissected a human cadaver and disproved Aselli`s wrong theory.

.
                                                                 1628: William Harvey mentioned in his `De
                                                                 Mortis Cordis` of having used 49 species in
                                                                 his experiments into blood circulation.

                                                                Drawings of Harvey`s experiment on blood
                                                                circulation in a snake. Left hand image shows
                                                                clamp on vena cava - restricting blood flow to
                                                                the heart. Right hand image shows clamp on
                                                                the artery - allowing flow to the heart filling it
                                                                with blood.

   Harvey came to several wrong conclusions from his animal experiments.

   The Ancient Chinese, in c2560BC, knew, from clinical observations that blood flowed
   in a continuous cycle round the human body. The Hindus, in c600BC, pumped blood
   thru human cadavers and described blood circulating.

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


                                              Illustraion. 1628.
                                              Harvey`s demonstration of blood circulation on human.

   1647: Jean Pecquet experimented on a dog, and
   is said to have discovered the thoracic duct.

                                         Drawing. 1651. Pecquet`s
                                         experiment on a dog

   Massa, in 1532, had traced the ducts proceeding
   upwards from the renal vessels. Fallopius, in 1561,
   had mentioned canals filled with a yellowish
   substance proceeding from the surface of the liver
   to the pancreas.

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

                                                                            Drawing. 1700s.
                                                                            mouse in modified Boyle airpump.

                                                                            The experiment is said to have led to
                                                                            the understanding of the function of
                                                                            the lungs.

   1660: Huygens built his own pump and tried replicating Boyle`s experiment - and
   failed. Thomas Hobbes noted that Boyle`s airpump was not air-tight.
   1662: The Royal Society was presented with Boyle`s original pump and tried using
   it. The Royal Society encountered the same problems as described by Hobbes.

   Avicenna (980-1037), by careful clinical observation of human respiration had come
   close to the modern concept of repirational physiology. Miguel Servatus, in 1545,
   studied human cadavers and gave a very clear understanding of the respiratory
   process as preformed by the lungs.

   1665: Richard Lower tried transfusing
   blood from the jugular vein of a dog
   to the jugular vein of another dog -
   but the donor dog died from blood loss.

   1667: Edmund King tried transfusing
   blood from the vein of a calf into the
   vein of a sheep - but little or no blood
   flowed from the calf into the sheep.
   Denys transfused blood from calves
   into dogs.

   Denys tried four animal-to-human
   blood transfusions - two recipients died.
   Lower and King tried transfusing blood
   from a sheep into a human - to change       woodcut. 1700s. animal-to-human blood
   the man`s character!                                   transfusion.

    Andreas Libravius, in 1615, had successfully transfused blood from a young man
    into an elderly patient.

PICTORIAL HISTORY of VIVISECTION

18th C - click arrow

PICTORIAL HISTORY of VIVISECTION

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