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However, his friends found a solution for Claude Bernard’s chronic financial problems – a wife with a substantial dowry. In 1845 Bernard married Marie Françoise “Fanny” Martin, the daughter of a rich Parisian physician, for convenience. Her dowry served as an income for the young family and was even used to finance Claude’s research. In the marriage contract the bride’s dowry amounted to 60,000 francs, equivalent at the time to 180,000 L of wine! The couple had 4 children, 2 sons, both of whom died very young, and 2 daughters, who went on to join their mother in her political fight against “vivisection” led by catholic fundamentalists. The couple separated and finally divorced on August 22, 1870. His daughters continued their campaign against animal research and, after their deaths, their house had to be sterilized by the authorities because of the rancid conditions after having been a refuge for countless homeless cats and dogs. Today no ethical committee would ever agree with Claude Bernard’s crude experiments which involved living animals being operated on without any anesthesia, which did not yet exist at the beginning of Claude Bernard’s career.