To G. F. Yeo 29 March [1878]1
Mar 29
To Dr Yeo.
Dear Sir,
As soon as I saw it stated that there wd be a memorial to C. B. I wished to contribute;2 but I have heard that he was reckless with respect to the suffering of animals & I have no means of ascertaining whether this charge is true.3 Physiology, seems to me one of the most important of all the sciences, & it is obvious that experiments on living animals are indispensible for its progress & therefore fully justifiable; but I shd esteem it a crime to add my mite in honouring any man who had not taken the utmost care to avoid causing [any] pain. I hope4
Therefore as at present informed I cannot contribute to the C. B. Memorial. I sincerely apologise for presuming to trouble you with these personal details, & remain Dear Sir | yours tr | C. D.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Elliott, Paul. 1987. Vivisection and the emergence of experimental physiology in nineteenth-century France. In Vivisection in historical perspective, edited by Nicolaas A. Rupke. London and New York: Croom Helm.
French, Richard D. 1975. Antivivisection and medical science in Victorian society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Schiller, Joseph. 1967. Claude Bernard and vivisection. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 22: 246–60.
Summary
Wishes to contribute to the memorial for Claude Bernard, but first wants to be assured that, in his experiments, Bernard was not reckless with respect to the suffering of animals.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11455
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Gerald Francis Yeo
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 202: 99
- Physical description
- ADraftS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11455,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11455.xml
