vivisection
noun
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Vivisection includes the Latin root sect, meaning "cut". The Greek physician Galen, who lived during the 2nd century A.D., practiced vivisection on live monkeys and dogs to learn such things as the role of the spinal cord in muscle activity and whether veins and arteries carry air or blood; his findings formed the basis of medical practice for more than a thousand years. Vivisection continues to be used in drug and medical research today, but often in secret, since it makes most people very uncomfortable and some groups are violently opposed to it.
Examples of vivisection in a Sentence
Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 16 May 2018
Unit 731 is also believed to have performed vivisections and frozen prisoners to death in tests of endurance.
—Mari Yamaguchi, USA TODAY, 24 July 2023
Mary Gaitskill is a novelist, essayist, and short-story writer celebrated by readers and critics (this one included) for her uncompromising acuity and clear-eyed vivisection of our mottled human nature.
—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2022
Or how about in District 9 where an entire alien race is subjected to squalor, neglect, and vivisection?
—Kyle Munkittrick, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2010
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Dictionary Entries Near vivisection
Cite this Entry
“Vivisection.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vivisection. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
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vivisection
noun
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