Claude Bernard (1813–1878)



Bernard and His Students

  • French physiologist.

  • Demonstrated that living organisms are composed of various substances and established experimental physiology.

  • In his later years, he expressed his research methods and principles in An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865).

    • Human beings do not have the right to experiment on humans, but they do have the right to experiment on animals.

    • Even if animal experiments cause suffering to animals, they are morally justified as long as they are beneficial to humans.

    • To analyze biological phenomena, experiments must be conducted through vivisection.

  • His wife and daughter, distressed by the fact that he conducted experiments on dogs without anesthesia, became involved in the anti-vivisection movement after Bernard's death.