inheritedAdam’ssin,norarerecompensedinanafterlife—to
suffer.^25
Descartes was also aware of more practical advantages:
Myopinionisnotsomuchcrueltoanimalsasindulgentto
men—atleasttothosewhoarenotgiventothesuperstitions
ofPythagoras—sinceitabsolvesthemfromthesuspicionof
crime when they eat or kill animals.^26
For Descartes the scientist the doctrine had still another
fortunate result. It was at this time that the practice of
experimentingonliveanimalsbecamewidespreadinEurope.
Sincetherewerenoanestheticsthen,theseexperimentsmust
have caused the animals to behave in a way that would
indicate,tomostofus,thattheyweresufferingextremepain.
Descartes’stheoryallowedtheexperimenterstodismissany
qualmstheymightfeelunderthesecircumstances.Descartes
himself dissected living animals in order to advance his
knowledgeofanatomy,andmanyoftheleadingphysiologists
oftheperioddeclaredthemselvesCartesiansandmechanists.
The following eyewitness account of some of these
experimenters, working atthe Jansenist seminary of Port-
Royal in the late seventeenth century, makes clear the
convenience of Descartes’s theory:
Theyadministeredbeatingstodogswithperfectindifference,
andmadefunofthosewhopitiedthecreaturesasiftheyfelt
pain.Theysaidtheanimalswereclocks;thatthecriesthey
emittedwhenstruckwereonlythenoiseofalittlespringthat
had been touched, but that the whole body was without
feeling. They nailed poor animals up on boards by