Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/169

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VIVIAN, 1ST BARON—VIVISECTION
153

(1523). While in England he resided at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was made doctor of laws and lectured on philosophy. Having declared himself against the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, he lost the royal favour and was confined to his house for six weeks. On his release he withdrew to Bruges, where he devoted himself to the composition of numerous works, chiefly directed against the scholastic philosophy and the preponderant authority of Aristotle. The most important of his treatises is the De Caucis corruptarum Artium, which has been ranked with Bacon's Organon. He died at Bruges on the 6th of May 1540.

A complete edition of his works was published by Gregorio Mayans y Siscar (Valencia, 1782). Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin's Luis Vives y la filosofía del renacimiento (Madrid, 1903) is a valuable and interesting study which includes an exhaustive bibliography of Vives's writings and a critical estimate of previous monographs. The best of these are A. J. Namèche, “Mémoire sur la vie et les écrits de Jean Louis Vives” in Mémoires couronnés par l'Académie Royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles (Brussels, 1841), vol. xv.; A. Lange's article in the Encyklopädie des gesammten Erziehungs- und Unterrichtswesens (Leipzig, 1887), vol. ix.; Berthe Vadier, Un Moraliste du XVIme siècle: Jean-Louis Vives et son livre de l'éducation de la femme chrétienne (Geneva, 1892); G. Hoppe, Die Psychologie von Juan Luis Vives (Berlin, 1901).

VIVIAN, RICHARD HUSSEY VIVIAN, 1st Baron (1775–1842), British cavalry leader, came of a Cornish family. Educated at Harrow and Exeter College, Oxford, Vivian entered the army in 1793, and less than a year later became a captain in the 28th foot. Under Lord Moira he served in the campaign of 1794 in Flanders and Holland. At the end of the expedition, the 28th bore a distinguished part in Lord Cathcart’s action of Gueldermalsen. In 1798 Vivian was transferred to the 7th Light Dragoons (now Hussars), and in Sir Ralph Abercromby’s division was present at the battles of Bergen and Alkmaar (19th September to 6th October 1799). In 1800 he received his majority, and in 1804 he became lieut.-colonel of the 7th. In command of this regiment he sailed to join Baird at Corunna in 1808, and took part in Lord Paget’s cavalry fights at Sahagun and Benavente. During the retreat of Moore’s army the 7th were constantly employed with the rearguard. Vivian was present at Corunna in 1808, and returned with the remainder of the army to England. It was not until late in 1813 that the 7th returned to the Peninsula, and Vivian (now colonel and A.D.C. to the prince regent) was soon taken away to command a cavalry brigade under Hill. With this corps he served throughout the fighting on the Nive (9th–13th December). At the beginning of 1814 he was transferred to a cavalry brigade of Beresford’s corps, and took a marked part in the action of Gave de Pau and the battle of Orthes. In the advance on Toulouse Vivian fought a brilliant action at Crois d’Orade on the Ers (8th April), when he was very severely wounded. At the beginning of 1815 he was made K.C.B.; he had been a major-general for several months. In April Sir Hussey Vivian was appointed to command a brigade of Uxbridge’s cavalry, and at Waterloo his regiments, with those of Vandeleur’s brigade, made the final charge of the day between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, sweeping everything before them. This service was rewarded by the thanks of both houses of parliament, the K.C.H. and the orders of Maria Theresa and St Vladimir from the emperors of Austria and Russia. He sat in the House of Commons as member for Truro from 1821 to 1831; he was then made commander of the forces in Ireland, and given the G.C.H. In 1835 he became master-general of the ordnance. In 1837 he received the G.C.B., and in 1841, being then M.P. for East Cornwall, was created Baron Vivian in the English peerage. A year later he died at Baden-Baden. He was twice married (first in 1804), and the title descended in the direct line. His natural son, Sir Robert John Hussey Vivian (1802–1887), was a famous soldier in India, who in 1857 was made K.C.B. and in 1871 G.C.B., having previously attained the rank of general.

VIVIANITE, a mineral consisting of hydrated iron phosphate Fe3(PO4)2+8H2O, crystallizing in the monoclinic system. The crystals possess a perfect cleavage parallel to the plane of symmetry and are usually bladed in habit; they are soft (H=1/2), flexible and sectile. The specific gravity is 2.6. When unaltered and containing no ferric oxide, the mineral is colourless, but on exposure to the light it very soon becomes of a characteristic indigo-blue colour. Crystals were first found in Cornwall (at Wheal Jane, near Truro, associated with pyrrhotite) by J. G. Vivian, after whom the species was named by A. G. Werner in 1817. The mineral had, however, been earlier known as a blue powdery substance, called “blue iron-earth,” met with in peat-bogs, in bog iron-ore, or with fossil bones and shells.  (L. J. S.) 

VIVISECTION, literally the cutting (sectio) of living (vivus) animals, a word which might be applied to all surgical operations whether practised upon the lower animals or on man. As conventionally used, however, it has exclusive reference to experiments upon the lower animals undertaken for the advancement of medical sciences. There are a number of people who, calling themselves anti-vivisectionists, strongly object to these experiments on the lower animals; and it must be conceded that the humane reasons which they advance against it can only be set aside as “sentimental” if considerations of a wider humanity can show that the arguments of the anti-vivisectionists really run counter to human progress. The supporters of vivisection, properly considered, must not be confused with those who would make a barbarous use of this means of research. What is at stake here is the right to use it properly and at all. It would be possible for cruelty of an unnecessary kind to result if the practice of vivisection were unrestricted; and the purpose of this article is to give some account of the method of experiments on animals as sanctioned by law in the United Kingdom, and to justify that method by setting forth the chief historical discoveries that have been made by the help of vivisection. Such experiments have for their object the advancement of the sciences of physiology and pathology. From the earliest periods experimental vivisections have occasionally been practised, but before the days of anaesthetics it was difficult to execute them, and not less difficult to draw conclusions. The invention of anaesthetics has greatly extended the scope of the experimental method, because an animal can be kept unconscious and quiet, without even a quiver of a muscle, during prolonged operations. Further, the introduction of the antiseptic method has made it possible to subject all tissues and regions of the body to surgical interference, and this has also had the effect of increasing the possibilities of experimental research.

In 1906 a British Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the whole subject under the chairmanship of Lord Selby, on whose death Mr A. J. Ram, K.C., took the chair. The Commission sat from October 1906 to March 1908, and heard no fewer than 21,761 questions and answers. In view of attempts on the part of the anti-vivisectionists to misrepresent the nature of the evidence given before the Commission, in January 1908 the supporters of experiments on animals founded the Research Defence Society, under the presidency of Lord Cromer; by July 1910 this society had some 3500 members. Its official address is 21 Ladbroke Square, London, W.

I. Methods Employed.—The present act relating to experiments on animals was passed in 1876. At that time the majority of these experiments were physiological. There was, it may be fairly said, no such thing as bacteriology, no general following up of Pasteur's work. A few experiments were made in pathology, for instance in tubercle; and a few in surgery, in pharmacology, and in the action of poisons, especially snake venom. But the chief use of experiments on animals was for the advancement of physiology. The evidence given before the Royal Commission (1875) was almost entirely on physiological matters, on the discoveries of Harvey, Bell, Magendie and Claude Bernard, on the Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory, and so forth. The act, therefore, was drafted with a view to physiology, without much concern for pathology, and without foreknowledge of bacteriology. At the time of writing (1910), 95% of the experiments are inoculations. Every experiment must be made in a registered place open to government inspection. But inoculation experiments are sometimes