Experimentation or exploitation? The investigations of David Ferrier,Dr Benjulia,and Dr Seward

Abstract

This article places the work of David Ferrier in the context of the vivisection movement and the agitation of its opponents. Between 1873 and 1874, Ferrier used the facilities of the laboratory attached to the Wakefield Lunatic Asylum to experiment first on animals and then, post-mortem, on patients who had died while in the asylum. These experiments and others on monkeys aroused considerable controversy at the time, and led to Ferrier's being prosecuted by antivivisectionists. His work made an important contribution to the understanding of the brain and of neurological disturbance, but raises important questions as to whether the cruelty of experimentation can be justified in the interests of ultimate good. Heart and Science (1883), where there is a specific reference to Ferrier in the preface, is Wilkie Collins's fictional protest against vivisection, and the second part of this article analyses the ways in which the concerns of the antivivisectionists are explored in the novel, particularly through the character of Dr Benjulia. Collins shows the dehumanising effect of the habitual practice of cruelty to animal subjects. He also dramatises the concern of antivivisectionists that animal experimentation was motivated primarily by thoughts of professional advance. The final part of the article focuses on Dracula (1897). Dr Seward, the superintendent of the lunatic asylum, has a Faustian desire for knowledge of the brain. Fascinated by his patient Renfield's zoophagy, he experiments in a tentative way, measuring himself against two prominent vivisectionists, Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson and David Ferrier. Instead of polemic, this novel, a gothic fantasy, offers an imaginative exploration of the themes of professional advancement, vivisection, and the limitations of science.