[f. L. vīvī gen. sing. neut. (and masc.), or vīvi- combining form, of vīvus living + sectio cutting. Hence F. vivisection. Cf. vividissection s.v. VIVI-.]
1. The action of cutting or dissecting some part of a living organism; spec. the action or practice of performing dissection, or other painful experiment, upon living animals as a method of physiological or pathological study.
1707. Sloane, Jamaica, I. 2. How sensible those nervous parts are, need not be told any who have seen vivisections, where the least … touches … will cause a sensible motion.
1736. Phil. Trans., XXXIX. 260. Small Parts of large Objects cannot easily be applied to the Microscope without being divided from their Wholes which in the case of Vivi section defeats the Experiment.
1842. Dunglison, Med. Lex., 735. Vivisection,… the act of opening or dissecting living animals.
1852. Lewis, Meth. Obs. & Reas. in Pol., I. 161. Of late years in particular vivisection, or anatomical investigation of the living subject, has often been practised upon some of the smaller mammalia.
1879. Browning, Tray, 43. By vivisection,… How brain secretes dog’s soul, we’ll see!
b. An operation of this nature.
1859. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., V. 317/1. The vivisections which many experimenters have practised, agree in carrying this investigation further.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 311. Such a conclusion seems to result from pathological facts and vivisections.
fig. 1895. Balfour, in Daily News, 15 Nov., 2/4. The vivisection of the British Empire—was that a constructive policy?
2. fig. Excessively minute examination or criticism.
1880. Swinburne, Study Shaks., i. (ed. 2), 23. This vivisection of a single poem is not defensible as a freak of scholarship.
3. attrib. and Comb., as vivisection act, bill, experiment.
1876. Nature, XIV. 65/1. Lord Carnarvon’s vivisection bill.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XV. 799/2. The Act restricting the practice of physiology is the Vivisection Act of 1876.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 26 Feb., 2/1. The atrocious character of many vivisection experiments.
