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to lie down. In 1985 a new statue with a new inscription, which incorporated the Dogged by original, was unveiled in Park, S RECORD paid for by the National Anti- controversy Society and the British Union for the

The Brown Dog Affair Abolition of Vivisection. The British AL MONUMENT Medical Journal and University College by Peter Mason TION A Two Sevens Publishing, 30 Wynter Street, predictably condemned it. This, too, N London SW11 2TZ: 1998. 118pp. £5.50 disappeared in 1992, but in 1994 emerged Lethal Laws: , Human again, although somewhat less pro8m- Health, and Environmental Policy inently sited. by Alix Fano It is striking that the monument, or the Zed: 1998. 256pp. £37.50, $55 (hbk), £12.95, idea behind it, survived intermittently for $19.95 (pbk) nearly 90 years and still had the power to provoke the medical establishment. John Galloway However, the number of animals used in On the face of it, these two books are about experiments in the United Kingdom rose the way animals are used by scientists. They from 19,000 each year to more than 3 tell us as much, however, about people’s million in the 90 years following the frustration with authority — government, brown dog’s death, a tide the statue did professional and commercial — and their nothing to stem. sense of being denied the chance to influ- It is evident from Lethal Laws that most ence events. The Brown Dog Affair is a research using live animals is not now revealing piece of social history which done by physiologists trying to explain shows this rather clearly. Lethal Laws is a how the body works. Problems of relentless attack on the use of animals for structure and function have been driven toxicity testing, and a call to governments to down to cellular and molecular levels. ban testing on live animals Canine cause: monuments to the brown dog have Rather, the use of animals is the result of The Brown Dog Affair began in 1903 done little to stop animal experimentation. legislation about public health, and health when Dr (later Sir) of and safety at work — to protect people University College London’s physiology After the trial, a plan was hatched to ever more dependent on new and department issued a writ for slander and keep the story alive. Louisa Woodward, a ‘improved’ chemical products, drugs, libel against , honorary wealthy Londoner given to charitable pesticides, cosmetics and detergents. The secretary of the National Anti-Vivisection causes, paid for an elaborate granite results of these tests are generally Society. drinking fountain surmounted by a uncertain and their implications probably At a large public meeting at St James’s bronze statue of ‘the dog’. In 1906 she more so. In practical terms testing is no Church in London’s Piccadilly, described persuaded Battersea Council, then more than a crude screening process; by the British Medical Journal as “carefully strongly anti-establishment, to erect it in a whether the metabolic similarities between stage-managed”, Coleridge had savagely local recreation ground. The fountain’s animals and humans are more significant attacked Bayliss over a demonstration he inscription, although factually correct, was than their differences is often a matter of had given to medical students. Bayliss had obviously inflammatory and — University luck. Fano is unhappy with this inbuilt cut open a dog’s neck to expose the College claimed — libellous. It read, “In uncertainty, drawing the conclusion that if salivary gland, which was stimulated memory of the brown terrier dog done to animal testing is not foolproof it can play electrically, in an unsuccessful attempt to death in the laboratories of University no part in protecting the public. She show that the pressure at which saliva is College”, and continued in a similar vein. recounts the story of thalidomide, where secreted is greater than . A As a way of keeping the controversy animal testing failed to identify a novel “terrier-type” dog was used — the brown alive, the memorial succeeded famously. side-effect that had disastrous con- dog of the title. Medical students demonstrated in protest sequences. This is a powerful and emotive Coleridge accused Bayliss of breaking and attacked the monument. The British example, but not one from which it is easy the law by twice contravening the 1876 Medical Journal thundered against it. to generalize. And it is naive to believe that Act, for which the United, perhaps, by a sense of being chemicals can be straightforwardly divided National Anti-Vivisection Society had underdogs themselves, trades unionists into beneficial and harmful — there is campaigned. After the demonstration the and some representatives of the always a trade-off. All drugs probably dog had to be put down. Coleridge did not and early labour movements rallied in cause unwanted side-effects for someone, leave the matter there, and in his rabble- support of the monument. It was seen as a somewhere. rousing speech he invited the public to symbol of political progress towards Like Coleridge at the beginning of the condemn vivisection on principle. greater justice in the social order and a century, Fano advocates a recourse to law, By naming Bayliss, Coleridge guaran- protest against the establishment, as together with a campaign to move the teed that the case came to court. Bayliss epitomized by the medical practitioners of issue into a wider social domain. For her won and was awarded £2,000 damages, a the day. If proof were needed, when the this involves finding allies in the Green huge sum for the day. But, as Coleridge Conservatives were returned to power in movement, while acknowledging that the intended, public interest and sympathy for Battersea in 1910, the fountain was ‘Greens’ think the animal lobby sent- the dog was aroused. The damages and removed and later destroyed. The Lancet imental. The rationale she seeks to costs were paid by public subscription, the breathed a sigh of relief, announcing that persuade them with, therefore, is that story was taken up in the national press, the monument had at last been overcome animal testing in isolation is simplistic and and questions were asked in the House of by “considerations of common sense”. encourages unwarranted optimism about Commons. Though dead, the monument refused the effect of any chemicals on the

NATURE | VOL 394 | 13 AUGUST 1998 635 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998 book reviews environment. Her legal angle is in- teresting, namely that extrapolating the findings of animal testing to people is unscientific and fraudulent. This might be a legal long shot but, like the Brown Dog Affair, it could make a good publicity stunt, given the media interest in scientific fraud. The Brown Dog Affair is an eminently readable book, giving a strong flavour of 8 the times. Peter Mason gives a balanced but humane view, although it would have helped to have a better picture of the medicine and surgery of the day. There is a hint at one point that poorer people were themselves used as ‘guinea pigs’ for new treatments — it would have been interesting to know more. Lethal Laws does not aim to achieve a balance — arguments in favour of animal testing are briefly rehearsed, but only to be knocked down. The real question is how hard the evidence is to support Fano’s claims. She acknowledges that many of the examples she gives date back 20 years. Also, she claims that pollution is the cause of a cancer epidemic, when the most significant reasons for its increasing incidence in developed countries are that people are living longer and women smoking more. Both books are about confrontation, born of frustration. But more tends to be achieved by pragmatic Insect cuisine: From top left clockwise... Sheesh! Kabobs, Cream of Katydid soup, Scorpion Scaloppine compromise and horse trading. and Sky Prawns. John Galloway is in the Team Development Unit, Eastman Dental Hospital, 256 Grays Inn Road, the open-minded 1970s generation. As to put us off our salad, or to scare us into London WC1X 8LD, UK. these authors evidently failed to change our making hand-lens inspection a routine part habits, it would seem fair for another to try of food preparation, but instead to convince to convince us of the delights of an insect- us that eating insects is officially OK. To whet rich diet. your appetite, here are some of the delicacies Grub’s up! In The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook, David on offer. ‘Three bee salad’ and ‘Nine ways to The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook George Gordon makes a fine attempt (he turn the tables on household and garden by David George Gordon uses ‘bugs’ in its widest sense, to include pests’ were two of my favourites, closely fol- Ten Speed Press: 1998. 140pp. $12.95 (pbk) anything that creeps, crawls, hops or wrig- lowed by ‘Party pupae’, ‘Cream of Katydid Helen Phillips gles). There is a very interesting section on soup’ and ‘Pest-o’. government-approved entomophagy, which For the inexperienced entomophagist, Entomophagy — eating insects — is nothing might make your skin crawl more than the there are heaps of useful cooking tips, nutri- new. Most of the world’s indigenous peoples raw ingredients do. tional information, historical accounts, include insects on the menu. But somewhere The US Food and Drug Administration preparation techniques (how to disarm a along the line, the population of Europe and has officially sanctioned permissible degrees scorpion or a bee, and how to prepare a the United States has lost the taste for a large of insect damage and infestation, including cricket before it hops off), serving sugges- proportion of the phylum Arthropoda. Why specified numbers of eggs, immature and tions, and hints about biological suppliers or should we relish crustaceans, yet reject the adult insects, or their parts, that are allowed harvesting from the wild. There is even a culinary delights of their protein-rich, cho- in various foods. It is acceptable if there are description of how to create the cricket lesterol-free, vitamin-laden six-legged or two or three fruitfly maggots in 200 grams of equivalent of Club Med, should you wish to eight-legged cousins? tomato juice, and as many as 100 insect frag- keep fresh ingredients on hand. The Other entomophages have attempted to ments are permitted in 25 grams of curry anatomical details and ‘choice cuts’ section, right this anomaly. In 1885, Vincent M. powder. And if you’ve ever wondered why fig however, was just a little more information Holt published a persuasive text entitled seeds stick between the teeth, then you’ll than I really needed. Why Not Eat Insects?, in which he attempted appreciate knowing that up to 13 insect No self-respecting recipe book would to convince England’s starving peasantry heads are allowed in 100 grams of fig paste. be complete without its recommendations that it would be much better fed if it were Not to mention cochineal, a red food addi- of the best wines to accompany the meal willing to embrace the locally collected tive, made from the pulverized remains of — apparently you can’t beat champagne. invertebrate fauna. More recently, Ronald the bug (this time the word is used in its true The best advice was to take two bottles, one L. Taylor’s inspired work Butterflies in My sense) Dactylopius coccus — 70,000 bugs in to eat with the meal and one to fortify the Stomach, and the accompanying volume every pound. chef. Entertaining with Insects tried to appeal to This useful information is not intended Helen Phillips is a science writer at Nature.

636 NATURE | VOL 394 | 13 AUGUST 1998 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998