Canines, Consanguinity, and One-Medicine: All the Qualities of a Dog except Loyalty

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.