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H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau.   This is easily the most horrifying of Wells' novels, more disturbing than the monstrous Martians of Wsr of the Worlds.  There is one part where he describes how Dr. Moreau does monstrous, painful things both surgically and by drugs to make various animals into creatures with some limited human characteristics: speech; walking erect; opposable thumbs; religion with Dr. Moreau as the Divine Lawgiver who uses the fear of the House of Pain where all these Beastmen had passed through as an instrument to create obedience. 

It is a horrifying collection of creatures part human, part animal, sometimes several animals.  Just close enough to suffer what we now call the uncanny Valley with respect to robots.

The description of the procedures by which he makes them almost human is similar to how World War I plastic surgery techniques for correction of severe mutilation of human bodies was adapted to create artificial and utterly phoney genitals.  Moreau's drugs are analogous to the hormonal treatments inflicted on young people to render them perpetually damaged in preparation for barbarous surgery that makes the worst genital mutilation seem almost normal.

It is a profoundly disturbing story of the pursuit of scientific knowledge with no ethical limits.   Until you get to the unfortunately real Dr. Mengele, there is nothing more troubling.