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Maurice Beddow Bayly
Born(1887-03-26)26 March 1887
Woolwich, London, England
Died22 June 1961(1961-06-22) (aged 74)
Occupation(s)Physician, activist

Maurice Beddow Bayly MRCS LRCP (26 March 1887 – 22 June 1961) was an English physician, anti-vivisection and anti-vaccination activist, and Theosophist, best known for his opposition to animal experimentation.

Biography[edit]

Bayly was born in Woolwich, London. He was educated at St Dunstan's College, London University and Charing Cross Hospital.[1] He was one of the few prominent doctors advocating anti-vivisection in the post-war period.[2]

He worked at the National Anti-Vivisection Hospital with excellent conduct until an incident in 1912 when he was reprimanded for carrying out an unnecessary operation on a terminally ill breast cancer patient.[3] The patient had not suffered during the operation nor did the family make a complaint. Bayly admitted that he had operated not for the patient’s benefit but because he was "anxious to perform the operation". He resigned shortly afterwards.[3]

He was a member of the National Anti-Vaccination League, the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society, and the English section of the Theosophical Society.[4]

Bayly opposed antitoxin treatment of Diphtheria cases as the research had been based on animal experiments.[5] In 1934, he alleged that the antitoxin does not work as Diphtheria is not caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae but by "drain poison".[5] This opinion wasn't accepted by the medical community.[5]

Bayly contributed a chapter on medicine to the 1938 book Where Theosophy and Science Meet, edited by D. D. Kanga.[6]

Vegetarianism[edit]

Bayly was an activist for vegetarianism. He was a speaker at the 15th World Vegetarian Congress in 1957.[7] He contributed to Geoffrey Rudd's magazine Vegetarian World Forum.[8]

Selected publications[edit]

  • The Schick Inoculation Against Diphtheria (1927)
  • Cancer the Failure of Modern Research: A Survey (1936)
  • Diet in Relation to Disease: The Case for Vegetarianism (1936)
  • The Case AGAINST Vaccination (1936)
  • Medicine. In Where Theosophy and Science Meet (1938)
  • The Taxpayer and Experiments on Living Animals: With Special Reference to the Work of the Medical Research Council (1938)
  • Suffering Caused to Horses in the Manufacture of Anititoxic Serums (1940)
  • Inoculation Against Typhoid Fever - A Criticism of its Value and Scientific Basis (1941)
  • Spotlights on Vivisection (1946)
  • B.C.G. Vaccination (1952)
  • The Futility of Experiments on Animals (1956)
  • The Story of the Salk Anti-Poliomyelitis Vaccine (1958)
  • More Spotlights on Vivisection (1960)
  • Clinical Medical Discoveries (1961)
  • Vivisection: The Futility of Experiments on Living Animals (1962)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Anonymous. (1978). Who Was Who Among English and European Authors, 1931-1949. Volume 1. Gale Research Company. p. 111
  2. ^ Bates, A. W. H. (2017). Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-137-55696-7
  3. ^ a b Bates, A. W. H. (2017). "The National Anti-Vivisection Hospital, 1902–1935". In Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History. Palgrave. ISBN 978-1137556967
  4. ^ Sri Ram, N. Theosophist Magazine, January 1962-August 1962, p. 230.
  5. ^ a b c Botting, Jack H. (2015). Animals and Medicine: The Contribution of Animal Experiments to the Control of Disease. Open Book Publishers. pp. 69-70. ISBN 978-1783741175
  6. ^ Sarma, R. Nagaraja (1940). "Where Theosophy and Science Meet.—A Stimulus to Modern Thought—A Collective work by D. D. Kanga". Current Science. 9 (3): 143–145. JSTOR 24205165.
  7. ^ "15th World Vegetarian Congress 1957". ivu.org. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  8. ^ "The Vegetarian World Forum". ivu.org. Retrieved 6 December 2023.

External links[edit]