Looking through the primary sources that were brought into class wav very interesting I thoroughly enjoyed getting a chance to look at the historical documents and try to understand why each was created when they were. When asked to pick a document or artifact to write about I found it to be a bit difficult since there were so many interesting pieces. I finally chose a magazine called Young Folks’ Annual. Within this is a collection of different articles dispersed amongst each other on topics of politics, science, and how to live. I chose to focus more on the science aspect of the magazine since I found that it tied into our discussions of heart and science.

The particular article I chose to focus on it entitled The Temperance Teachings of Science by Prof. A. B. Palmer, M.D., LL.D. The article was published in 1886 only four years after the first publication of Wilkie Collins’ Heart and Science. Though This article concerns the effects of alcohol on the body and not vivisection like in Heart and Science, one must keep in mind that each was written in a time where science was rapidly changing and finding new ways to define itself. Though Heart and Science can be said to argue against the use of vivisection in science, it can also be said that it emphasizes the importance of science in the late 1800s. This something that Palmer’s essay is also doing. Early on in the essay Palmer addresses that they were living in a time where science had turned over a new leaf and was in the midst of many new and great discoveries. He uses the example of a candle. Palmer explains that in the past (or before the second half of the 1800s) scientists used the light of a candle to help perform their experiment, whereas today (in 1884) the candle itself is now being studied.

Palmer continues in his work to inform his readers of the effects of alcohol on the human body. He describes in great detail how the depressant moves from the stomach to the blood and to the brain and each of the effects it has on the body along the way. Having read many articles surrounding the debate of vivisection, I cannot help but wonder and ask how did Palmer reach such explicit conclusions about the human body. One could argue that the information given in this article is extremely informative and relevant, considering prohibition was a mere 35 years away. However, the same could be said for many of the conclusions found as a result of vivisection. The second half of the 1800s was a time that science evolved to be a stepping stone for what we know today. Our ideals and morals have changed since then and yet what we know is largely based on those findings.