Maria Deraismes (1828–1894), a pioneering French feminist and republican activist, developed a nuanced critique of experimental medicine that has been largely overlooked in contemporary scholarship. Through the antivivisection movement, she challenged Claude Bernard’s scientification of medicine based on animal experimentation, arguing that laboratory medicine lacked therapeutic value and that reductionist practices distanced medical science from patients’ lived reality. This study further identifies affinities between her arguments and vitalist traditions, drawing parallels with Montpellier vitalists whilst demonstrating how Deraismes anticipated Canguilhem’s thought. By examining Deraismes’s speeches, this research demonstrates that the antivivisection movement engaged seriously with epistemological questions, repositions her within the history of medical philosophy, challenges narratives of Bernard’s definitive triumph over vitalism, and illuminates the rigorous nature of women’s contributions to scientific discourse.