Main
publications by Hans Ruesch on vivisection
chronologically
ordered
Imperatrice nuda
La scienza medica attuale sotto accusa
Rizzoli, Milano, 1976, 318pp
Garzanti, Milano, 1977,
313pp
Civis, Massagno,
1989, 343pp
Civis, Massagno,
2005, iv+343pp
A transcription (212 pp.) of the first edition, with a
Nota editoriale
e presentazione
is freely and integrally downloadable here!
This famous book is
the outcome of the researches and debates in which Ruesch
had been involved since the early 1970s. It appeared under the imprint of a
major Italian publisher, Rizzoli, at the end of January 1976. It just succeeded
in gleaning a score of reviews in newspapers and magazines, more or less
positive and sometimes enthusiastic, but the publisher withdrew the book as
soon as he could, a few weeks later. For its insight, scope, social and
political relevance and literary quality it is one of the most important books
ever written against a scientific orthodoxy, in any field. It should be
required reading in university courses in medicine, bioethics, history and
philosophy of science – and literature.
It has 7 parts: I. Scienza o follia?, II. Le prove, III. Le
anime mute, IV. Mito e realtà, V. Il neogalenismo,
VI. La ribellione, VII. I nodi
al pettine, and several appendices (a short one in
the 1st edition, expanded in 1977, and a “Piccola storia editoriale” in 1989 and a
preface by M. Mamone Capria
in the 4th and last edition before the author’s death).
Slaughter of the Innocent
Bantam
Books,
This
is the English edition – in fact a much longer book – of Imperatrice nuda, simultaneously published in the
United States and Canada by what was then the bigger publisher of North
America, Bantam Books, in April 1978. Its somewhat
ambiguous title was the publisher’s decision; however the subtitle explained
what was meant by it: “Stop the senseless, bloody torture of millions of
animals in laboratories all over the world. The breakthrough book that will
shock you, enrage you, tear your heart out”. In fact Ruesch
wanted the title to be “Naked empress” (like in the original Italian version);
he will use the intended original title for the follow-up book.
As
said, with respect to Imperatrice nuda it is
almost a new book. It has 10 parts: 1.
Science or Madness?, 2. The Voiceless, 3. The Evidence, 4. Fact and Fantasies,
5. The New Religion, 6. Biochemical Bernardism, 7.
Dehumanization, 8. The Rebellion, 9. The Comeuppance, 10. Conclusion; there is
also an appendix (pp. 411-20) and a very detailed and useful index (pp.
421-32).
Vivisection
is scientific fraud
Civis, ,
1979, 52pp (compresa la copertina)
Neither Imperatrice nuda nor Slaughter of the Innocent contained any pictures
of vivisection experiments. The verbal description in some pages was more than
enough to disturb ordinary readers. This booklet, from which many AV
exhibitions have drawn much of their material, is a collection of photographs,
with an extended commentary. After leafing through just a few pages, even a
reader with a blind faith in bio-medical research will have a hard time in
denying that the culprits of such cruel and meaningless experiments are the
last people whom you would like to entrust with the care of your health.
Die
Fälscher der Wissenschaft
Civis, 1979, pp. 80+xL
I falsari della scienza
Civis, 1980,
19842, 19913, 40+xlvi pp
Les
Faussaires de la Science
Civis,
1993, 92pp
These are relatively
thin books, but of big format, providing a direct and enlightening account of
several confrontations between Ruesch and top
vivisectionists among journalists, doctors, university professors etc. The
title translates as “The Counterfeiters of Science”. They are very useful for
antivivisectionists who want to know the kind of people they are going to face
in public debates, in case they succeed, of course, in getting a vivisectionist
to accept to debate vivisection before an audience – a very hard task, by the
way. The French text is to a large extent different
from the Italian one, as it concentrates mainly on cases of interest to the
French and Swiss reader. These books contain as an appendix Vivisection is scientific fraud.
Naked
Empress
or The Great
Medical Fraud
Civis,
1982, 19862, 19923, 222pp
Die
Pharma-Story
Der Grosse Schwindel
Hirthammer, München, 1985
The third volume in the antivivisection series treats
not so much vivisection in itslef, as the system
thriving on it: thel «Che-Me-Vi
Kombinat», i. e. the
chemical, medical and vivisectionist combine. Ruesch
had been a novelist, but some of the stories contained in this book would not
be accepted in a novel, because they are so unlikely. Unfortunately they are as
unlikely and they are true and documented.
The Engliish version has 6
parts: 1. The Humbug Dogma, 2. The Worldwide Che-Me-Vi
Kombinat, 3. The Health Racket, 4. The Power, 5. The
Big Brainwash, 6. Kaleidoscope. It contains a detailed index (pp. 217-22).
Bullet-in
Nr. 1
The
anti-Hans Ruesch front. The
British bulwark at Strasbourg
Civis,
November 1983, 58pp
Bullet-in
Nr. 2
The Infiltration
in Animal Welfare
Civis, January 1, 1988, 58pp
These
booklets together could have formed a book with the title “The Counterfeiters
of Antivivisectionism”. They are among the texts for which Ruesch
was hated in several self-styled “animalist” circles and leagues. Ruesch was convinced that only by denouncing the sinners one could stop the sins to be endlessly repeated –
and the AV movement was no exception. Why did such a scientifically and
ethically reasonable reform movement as the AV fail? An important part of the
answer is contained here.
1000
Ärzte gegen Tierversuche
Civis,
1986, 192pp
1000
Doctors (and many more)
Against Vivisection
Civis, 1989,
281pp
This is a
fundamental archive of quotations from medicla
doctors and scientists, which gives the definitive proof that vivisection is a
scientific absurdity by the very
admission of top vivisectors. Its survival only
depends on circumstances which have nothing to do with science or medicine. The
book is the fulfilment of a promise Ruesch had
implicitly made, when in Imperatrice nuda, which
contained many quotations which are also reproduced here, he wrote that a whole
book could be made of such quotations. Here is the book, a great service to the
AV movement, which has often pillaged it without appropriate reference.
CIVIS
For the Abolition
of Vivisection
INTERNATIONAL
FOUNDATION REPORT
Nr.
Nr. 24 Fall 2005
Ruesch
published his reports in Italian, English, German, and French. The English
series is the longest. The reports were the main tool by which Ruesch kept his admirers updated as to what happened in the
AV movement worldwide and to himself as an AV activist. In these reports there
is both the generosity towards the many people whose work was lavishly
described and advertised, and the unrelenting criticism levelled at phoney
animalist leaders and leagues, whose hypocrisy was again and again exposed.
What not a few people failed to realize was that Ruesch
had not taken up antivivisectionism as a way to secure to himself
some degree of fame or of social entertainment. When he started his fight he
was a famous and established writer with nothing to gain from his new
engagement and everything to lose. No wonder he could not stand people in the
animal-rights or AV movement that were themselves a part of the problem, not of
the solution.
Antwortet
Auf immerwiederkehrende Fragen
Civis-Schweiz, 15pp
Answers
Questions on Vivisection
Ukavis
Publications, 1998, 20pp
Domande e Risposte sulla Vivisezione
(sperimentazione animale)
CIVIS, 2000, 21pp
A short, brilliant first
introduction to antivivisectionism, in several languages.
Slaughter of the Innocent
(con un saggio introduttivo di M. Mamone Capria e M.J. Walker)
Slingshot Publications, Londra, 2003,
xxviii-449pp
This is
the last edition of Slaughter of the
Innocent. It is printed in slightly larger type face than the original, but
the same page layout and numbering has been preserved; as to paper and binding,
it is a quality paperback. The long introductory essay puts the book and its
content in historical perspective, while at the same time emphasizing its great
relevance to present-day concerns.
La medicina smascherata
L'antivivisezionismo come esperienza politica
(a cura di M. Mamone Capria)
Editori Riuniti, Roma, 2005, 271pp, 14 euro
A book-length
interview, with introduction, appendices, footnotes, supplementary material,
documents. What comes nearest to an autobiography among all Ruesch’s
writings. So far, it has not been translated into
other languages. Given its international perspective, it should be read and
pondered by activists in the no-global movement, whatever their specific
objectives, since they have to face today more or less the same institutional, mediatic, legal and illegal obstacles that were thrown at Ruesch and his followers. In
La figlia dell'imperatrice
La grande industria della malattia
(edited and with an essay by
M. Mamone Capria)
Stampa Alternativa / Nuovi Equilibri, 2006
320pp, 15 euros
Thirty years after Imperatrice nuda, Hans Ruesch at last published the Italian version of Naked Empress, in updated form and with
a long appendix, “Criticism of the pharmaceutical industry and of the
biomedical research” (pp. 258-317) by M. Mamone Capria, which provides updates and supplementary information.
In many ways the testament of Hans Ruesch.