Magendie (1783–1855)

Francoise Magendie was to become the most influential vivisectionist of all time although when he first began dissecting conscious animals is unknown. Elliott (1987) puts it within a few years of his first publication (1809) because the essay did not describe vivisection, only an intent to conduct it [14]. By the time of his death in 1855, Magendie had been dubbed the "father of experimental physiology" and had done more to foment anti-vivisectionist sentiment in the UK than any other "scientist" in Europe [15]. Descriptions of his vivisections, often performed publicly, abound and reveal absolute indifference to animal suffering and to those who judged his actions cruel. Admittedly, there was a lack of effective anaesthesia—at least for the first forty years of his career—but not the final nine (see Figure 1 for the approximate dates when anaesthetics and analgesics became available for use in animal experiments). France's first successful ether anaesthetic was administered on 22 December 1846, with reports on its general and obstetrical use being published in January and February 1847, respectively [16]. Magendie himself examined the effects of rectal ether and morphine in dogs [17].

Furthermore, as the first Professor of Physiology at the College de France and Vice-President of the Academie des Sciences, it seems improbable that Magendie could have remained ignorant of the e fforts of French physiologists and pharmacologists, e.g., Gerdy, Longet, Flourens, Figuier and Soubeiran to investigate and improve anaesthetic methods [16]. To an astute scientist, the advantages of ether (and later chloroform) in at least some animal experiments should have been clear—and if not for the animals' benefit—for his own and those of his like-minded mentees, against whom the charges of disgraceful cruelty were being hurled with increasing ferocity from a growing European anti-vivisectionist movement. Magendies defence was anthropocentric: he experimented on animals because he did not wish to experiment on humans. In response to a Quaker who challenged him to:

*"......desist from these experiments, because thou hast not the right to cause animals to die or make them su*ff*er...."*

Magendie rejoined that if his experiments did not serve humanity, they would indeed be cruel. However, to use animals in order to make discoveries useful to medicine did not merit such reproach [18]. This position applied to anaesthetics. As early as 1847, Magendie had observed that "intoxication caused by sulphuric ether was "little understood" and that only when it was thoroughly understood could one safely and with a clear conscience apply it to man" [19].

**Figure 1.** Dates of anaesthetic and analgesic drug discoveries in relation to key events in the refinement of animal experimentation. Alternatively shaded x axis blocks each represent a 50 year epoc. A(SP)A 1986: The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. ARRIVE: Animals in Research: Reporting in Vivo Experiments; Reporting guidelines. Additional dates for reference: [1]: 1873 Sanderson publishes, "Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory"; [2]: the Magnan "a ffair"; [3]: the brown dog a ffair. CHCl3: chloroform.
