Abstract
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The rise of pet culture and the expansion of medical science occurred concurrently in the late
nineteenth century. From this time in Anglo-American societies dogs were simultaneously
valorised as ‘man’s best friend’ and the ‘ideal model’ for experimental medicine. By tracking the
hounds into our laboratories and onto the settee, changes in our conception of the properties of
blood and canine breeding can be
used to excavate covert connections between the
contradictory social and scientific utilisations of this species. Describing the movement of
genealogical and medical knowledge between the benchtop, the kennel and the clinic illustrates
how Rudolph Virchow’s earlier promotion of a concept of ‘one-medicine’ foreshadowed the
twentieth-century concomitant development and intermingling of the biomedical sciences and a
sophisticated companion animal medical expertise.