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Book Review: Of Mice, Models, & Men

Book Review: Of Mice, Models, & Men BOOK REVIEWS dressed as rabbits accost them in the street for OF MICE, MODELS, & MEN donations or signatures for petitions. Those who are Andrew N. Rowan more closely involved will be disappointed, but their State University of New York Press, Albany, 1984 disappointment will be tempered with respect for Dr x + 323 pp. $34.50 ($12.95 paperback) - Rowan in being prepared to undertake such a ISBN 0-87395-776-8)ISBN 0-87395-777-6 difficult task at a time when so much is happening (paperback) and many changes in attitudes and procedures are taking place. Sadly, events overtook this book while it was in press. This book is rather like the New York Times - it contains a great deal of information which is Michael Balls critically assessed, well-written and with an under­ standing of the fundamental issues, but it assumes that the United States is the centre of all worthwhile or meaningful activity - what happens on the other AN INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL side of the Atlantic or the Pacific is merely of MODELLING secondary interest and importance. Such Annette J. Dobson parochialism is to be expected of NYT journalists, but Chapman & Hall, London, 1983 Andrew Rowan developed his awareness of the 125 pp. £5.95 animal experimentation dilemma and served his apprenticeship in Europe! ISBN 0-412-24860-3 The book is divided into four parts: the background for the criticism of animal research; the issues; toxicity testing in safety evaluation; and the moral In 1972 a paper was published by J.A. Neider and R.W.M. Wedderburn (Journal of the Royal Statistical question, alternatives, and suggestions. Society A 135, 370-384) which forms an important The background section defines biomedical science, milestone in the development of statistical science. analyses the underlying attitudes and assumptions of The paper describes a unified theoretical framework vivisectionists and anti vivisectionists that cloud which brings together many methods of statistical reasoned debate, historical notes, some notes on analysis which had previously been thought of as species used and types of uses, and a chapter on pain and suffering. largely unrelated; thus techniques such as probit analysis and contingency table analysis were related The "issues" section consists of a number of essays theoretically with the more "mainstream" on the use of animals in education, primate research, animal behaviour and psychological research, the approaches of multiple regression, analysis of "pound" animal battle, and the cases against and for variance and analysis of covariance. The new theory animal research. was called "generalised linear models" and a GUM (Generalised Linear The section on toxicity testing reviews the computer package called Interactive Modelling) was written to enable development of animal testing, the LD50, the Draize tests, and chronic toxicity tests, and briefly gives an statisticians to make efficient use of the new theory. This book presents in monograph form the basic animal welfare perspective. Curiously, Dr Rowan theory behind generalised linear models, and then does not mention the FRAME Toxicity Committee, goes on to show how several of the more commonly which was established in 1979 as a result of an initiative taken when he was employed by FRAME. used statistical techniques <including all those listed The final section begins with a historical view of above) fit in to the general theory. There is, moral attitudes toward animals and, more recently, unfortunately, no escaping the fact that this is toward laboratory animals, then Dr Rowan puts primarily a book for students of statistics, and would forward his well-known and very constructive view be hard going for most biologists, even those who are that the alternatives provide a meeting ground for proficient at using a wide range of statistical science and animal welfare. It is here that there is no techniques. Considerable mathematical dexterity, including matrix notation and calculus, is a place for the total extremists from either end of the prerequisite. Several numerical examples are given, spectrum of views on animal experiments. Even here, mostly of a biological nature. However, in many of though, the book disappoints. First, he quotes again that awful "personal communication" from Sergey these little if any intermediate working is shown, and Fedoroff, that "the application of tissue cultures to thus they will not be a great help to readers biomedical research is limited only by the struggling to follow the mathematical arguments. These points notwithstanding, this is a good book imagination of the scientists employing them". which should prove useful to its intended audience. In Repeating this ludicrous statement, even with a qualifying explanation that it doesn't mean what it this context the only criticism I would make is that says, does not serve the alternatives cause. That the the author, presumably because of space constraints, application of tissue cultures is limited by their very does not always take her own good advice. For nature is an essential truth which must be instilled example, instructions on how to examine residuals following a multiple regression, to check on into young tissue culturists at the very beginning of assumptions, are not followed in the numerical their careers. Then there is the strange and oblique example. The chapter headings are: 1) Introduction; reference to a "group called FRAME" which "in 1978 2) Model fitting; 3) Exponential family of attracted 180 scientists to a symposium on alternatives at the Royal Society". What about the distributions and generalised linear models' 4) meeting in 1982 at the Royal Society which attracted Estimation; 5) Inference; 6) Multiple regressio~; 7) 300 scientists to discuss the Report of the FRAME Analysis of variance and covariance; 8) Binary Toxicity Committee? variables and logistic regression; 9) Contingency tables and log-linear models. This book will be of great interest to those outside the field who want to read a reasoned and informative account of the reasons why citizens Dennis Chanter http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Alternatives to Laboratory Animals SAGE

Book Review: Of Mice, Models, & Men

Alternatives to Laboratory Animals , Volume 11 (4): 1 – Jun 1, 1983

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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 1983 Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments
ISSN
0261-1929
eISSN
2632-3559
DOI
10.1177/026119298301100411
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS dressed as rabbits accost them in the street for OF MICE, MODELS, & MEN donations or signatures for petitions. Those who are Andrew N. Rowan more closely involved will be disappointed, but their State University of New York Press, Albany, 1984 disappointment will be tempered with respect for Dr x + 323 pp. $34.50 ($12.95 paperback) - Rowan in being prepared to undertake such a ISBN 0-87395-776-8)ISBN 0-87395-777-6 difficult task at a time when so much is happening (paperback) and many changes in attitudes and procedures are taking place. Sadly, events overtook this book while it was in press. This book is rather like the New York Times - it contains a great deal of information which is Michael Balls critically assessed, well-written and with an under­ standing of the fundamental issues, but it assumes that the United States is the centre of all worthwhile or meaningful activity - what happens on the other AN INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL side of the Atlantic or the Pacific is merely of MODELLING secondary interest and importance. Such Annette J. Dobson parochialism is to be expected of NYT journalists, but Chapman & Hall, London, 1983 Andrew Rowan developed his awareness of the 125 pp. £5.95 animal experimentation dilemma and served his apprenticeship in Europe! ISBN 0-412-24860-3 The book is divided into four parts: the background for the criticism of animal research; the issues; toxicity testing in safety evaluation; and the moral In 1972 a paper was published by J.A. Neider and R.W.M. Wedderburn (Journal of the Royal Statistical question, alternatives, and suggestions. Society A 135, 370-384) which forms an important The background section defines biomedical science, milestone in the development of statistical science. analyses the underlying attitudes and assumptions of The paper describes a unified theoretical framework vivisectionists and anti vivisectionists that cloud which brings together many methods of statistical reasoned debate, historical notes, some notes on analysis which had previously been thought of as species used and types of uses, and a chapter on pain and suffering. largely unrelated; thus techniques such as probit analysis and contingency table analysis were related The "issues" section consists of a number of essays theoretically with the more "mainstream" on the use of animals in education, primate research, animal behaviour and psychological research, the approaches of multiple regression, analysis of "pound" animal battle, and the cases against and for variance and analysis of covariance. The new theory animal research. was called "generalised linear models" and a GUM (Generalised Linear The section on toxicity testing reviews the computer package called Interactive Modelling) was written to enable development of animal testing, the LD50, the Draize tests, and chronic toxicity tests, and briefly gives an statisticians to make efficient use of the new theory. This book presents in monograph form the basic animal welfare perspective. Curiously, Dr Rowan theory behind generalised linear models, and then does not mention the FRAME Toxicity Committee, goes on to show how several of the more commonly which was established in 1979 as a result of an initiative taken when he was employed by FRAME. used statistical techniques <including all those listed The final section begins with a historical view of above) fit in to the general theory. There is, moral attitudes toward animals and, more recently, unfortunately, no escaping the fact that this is toward laboratory animals, then Dr Rowan puts primarily a book for students of statistics, and would forward his well-known and very constructive view be hard going for most biologists, even those who are that the alternatives provide a meeting ground for proficient at using a wide range of statistical science and animal welfare. It is here that there is no techniques. Considerable mathematical dexterity, including matrix notation and calculus, is a place for the total extremists from either end of the prerequisite. Several numerical examples are given, spectrum of views on animal experiments. Even here, mostly of a biological nature. However, in many of though, the book disappoints. First, he quotes again that awful "personal communication" from Sergey these little if any intermediate working is shown, and Fedoroff, that "the application of tissue cultures to thus they will not be a great help to readers biomedical research is limited only by the struggling to follow the mathematical arguments. These points notwithstanding, this is a good book imagination of the scientists employing them". which should prove useful to its intended audience. In Repeating this ludicrous statement, even with a qualifying explanation that it doesn't mean what it this context the only criticism I would make is that says, does not serve the alternatives cause. That the the author, presumably because of space constraints, application of tissue cultures is limited by their very does not always take her own good advice. For nature is an essential truth which must be instilled example, instructions on how to examine residuals following a multiple regression, to check on into young tissue culturists at the very beginning of assumptions, are not followed in the numerical their careers. Then there is the strange and oblique example. The chapter headings are: 1) Introduction; reference to a "group called FRAME" which "in 1978 2) Model fitting; 3) Exponential family of attracted 180 scientists to a symposium on alternatives at the Royal Society". What about the distributions and generalised linear models' 4) meeting in 1982 at the Royal Society which attracted Estimation; 5) Inference; 6) Multiple regressio~; 7) 300 scientists to discuss the Report of the FRAME Analysis of variance and covariance; 8) Binary Toxicity Committee? variables and logistic regression; 9) Contingency tables and log-linear models. This book will be of great interest to those outside the field who want to read a reasoned and informative account of the reasons why citizens Dennis Chanter

Journal

Alternatives to Laboratory AnimalsSAGE

Published: Jun 1, 1983

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