ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Animal invisibility as a clue to emotional conflict in primate experimental science in the early twentieth century

• In Event: Invisible Actors in Biomedical and Environmental Sciences (I) & (II)

English Abstract

In biomedical sciences, as in other fields of scientific enquiry, emotional distance is required by the rules of objectivity. This might explain why Claude Bernard refused to experiment on monkeys, who roused strong emotions in him because of their resemblance to humans, but had no qualms about using dogs (Guerrini, 2003, p. 117). Louis Pasteur used monkeys in his research on a rabies vaccine, but stopped using them not only because they were not ‘relevant’ and difficult to obtain, but because they were “unnerving.” (Morange, 2022, p. 322-23). Undaunted by the human-like features of apes, Elie Metchnikoff undertook studies on syphilis with more than 100 apes at the Institut Pasteur in 1903-1906. Later, in 1922, the Institut Pasteur launched a primate facility in Kindia, French Guinea to supply its laboratories. Using the cases of chimpanzee individuals enrolled in experiments at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and Kindia, I examine how their human handlers often felt affection, emotion and a sense of moral obligation towards them, which shaped both the experiments and the lived experiences of their animal subjects. I also show the ways in which researchers’ conflicted emotions about animals were inextricable from the social conflicts that defined science. For instance, voicing their dilemma between sympathies for sentient creatures and their commitment to a higher good could help experimenters ward off criticisms by antivivisectionists. Finally, I suggest that the emotional conflicts exemplified by primate laboratory science provide a compelling model for re-thinking the apparent opposition between reason and emotion in modern decision-making.

Author

• Marion Constance Thomas, University of Strasbourg