Heart and Science, one of Wilkie Collins' later novels, is concerned with the debate over what he termed 'the hideous secrets of vivisection.' The tale of a family split by various opinions and sentiments, as well as the novel's clear parallels to the animal welfare/animal rights debates of today will strike chords of understanding with modern readers, who always relate well to the accessible conversational style of Collins' prose.

Appendices of contextual material include contemporary reviews, Carroll, Cobbe and others on the vivisection debate of the 1870s, Collins’s letters, and R. Browning’s anti-vivisectionist poems.