Frances Power Cobbe (1822- 1904): Theology, Science, and the Antivivisection Movement

This chapter places the ideas of Frances Power Cobbe, a noted Victorian writer, feminist, and antivivisectionist leader, against the background of the Victorian crisis of faith and the rise of scientific naturalism. It considers Cobbe’s campaign against vivisection as a vital and integral part of her lifelong battle against the growing influence of atheism, agnosticism, materialism, and utilitarianism, which she believed to be intimately connected with the ascendency of the “scientific spirit” in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Driven by a grave concern for the moral and spiritual condition of humankind, and apprehensive of the pernicious influence of the scientific spirit as exemplified in the growth in experimentation as a scientific method, in physiology as a discipline, and in science as a profession, Cobbe employed the antivivisection platform as a most critical venue from which to voice her critique of Victorian science and society in general.