Marie Françoise "Fanny" Bernard (née Martin) (16 September 1819 – 9 October 1901) was a French

anti-vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...

campaigner and creator of an anti-vivisection society. She was the wife of the pioneer in experimental research in physiology,

Claude Bernard Claude Bernard (; 12 July 1813 – 10 February 1878) was a French physiologist. I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science". He originated the term ''milieu intérieur'' and the associated c ...

Background

Marie Françoise Martin married Claude Bernard on Wednesday 7 May 1845, and it was her dowry from her father, a physician, that allowed him to pursue his studies under

François Magendie __NOTOC__ François Magendie (6 October 1783 – 7 October 1855) was a French physiologist, considered a pioneer of experimental physiology. He is known for describing the foramen of Magendie. There is also a ''Magendie sign'', a downward ...

at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

in Paris. They had three children—Jeanne-Henriette, Marie-Claude, and a son who died in infancy. Marie Françoise became opposed to her husband's research methods. Magendie, Claude Bernard and his fellow physiologists—men such as

Charles Richet Charles Robert Richet (; 25 August 1850 – 4 December 1935) was a French physiologist at the Collège de France and immunology pioneer. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Riche ...

in France and Michael Foster in England—were strongly criticized for the

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...

they carried out on animals, particularly dogs. Anti-vivisectionists infiltrated Magendie's lectures in Paris, where he was dissecting dogs without anaesthetic, allegedly shouting "''Tais-toi, pauvre bête!''" ("Shut up, you poor beast!") while he worked on them. She separated from Bernard in 1870.

''Arthur de Bretagne''

At the age of 19 Claude Bernard wrote a play called ''Arthur de Bretagne'', which was published only after his death. Marie Françoise and her daughters alleged that it contained a preface that defamed them. They are thought to have sued to have the copies of the play destroyed. However, there was a radio production in 1936, and a second edition appeared in 1943.

''Experimental Animals: A Reality Fiction''

In 2016, the American author of

experimental literature Experimental literature is a genre of literature that is generally "difficult to define with any sort of precision." It experiments with the conventions of literature, including boundaries of genres and styles; for example, it can be written in ...

Thalia Field published ''Experimental Animals: A Reality Fiction'', a thoroughly-researched novel in which she writes about Claude Bernard and the nineteenth-century

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

movement from the point of view of Marie-Françoise "Fanny" Bernard.

Notes

1819 births 1901 deaths Animal testing French anti-vivisectionists French animal welfare workers French activists French women activists {{France-activist-stub

Background

''Arthur de Bretagne''

''Experimental Animals: A Reality Fiction''

See also

Notes