Man and Mouse

Part 1 An old debate in a new context - the nature of the arguement. Part 2 What is included under the word "animal"?: the biological continuum and operational decision; the upper bound - man-animal; the lower bound - vertebrate-invertebrate; discrimination between animals. Part 3 What is an "experiment"?: observation, intervention and analysis; holism; the unknown and the unexpected; "fundamental" and "applied" research. Part 4 The ethical questions: the physiology of pain; the changing issues; consent; Jeremy Bentham on suffering and killing; sentiency, purposiveness, self-enrichment, experimental life; the higher animal vs the "lower" human "incompetent"; superbeings from another planet; animal "rights" and moral worth; some other approaches - the specifically human; the ethical synthesis. Part 5 The benefits of animal experiment: benefit from knowledge - practical benefits and some caveats; benefits to man; cancer; advances in surgery; the change in appearances of human disease; benefits to animals; benefits in tropical medicine; limited experiment and unlimited benefit; the only useful suffering?; the "test of deletion". Part 6 The pattern of discovery: the discovery-benefit lag time; the dangers of preoccupation with benefit; the whole animal as a super detector; individuality and variability; some pessimists. Part 7 Pain, suffering, and the loss of animal life: a possible categorization of pain; suffering; assessment of pain and suffering; the development of skill in analgesia. Part 8 The alternatives to animal experiment: avoidance of unnecessary repetition; use of the non-animal alternative; prediction of biological action from chemical structure; structure-activity relationships; modelling; alternatives - a reductionist philosophy; are alternatives sufficiently used?; the pattern of growth of new remedies; the parallel rise and fall of pharmacopoeial innovation and animal experiment; the alternative of human experiment; some pioneers; pain, circulation and respiration; human survival in hostile conditions; clinical pharmacology. Part 9 Man and mouse: the surface-area rule; the case of penicillin. Part 10 Toxicity testing: general toxicity and the LD50; the fixed-dose procedure; cosmetics, toiletries, and the Draize eye test; irritancy and corrosiveness; allergy and immunotoxicity; teratogenicity; carcinogenesis; is the risk of toxicity enough to justify animal testing?; how safe is safe?. Part 11 Striking the balance: animals in teaching - Pasteur and the "prepared mind"; who is it that is insensitive?; the context of animal experiment; the question of public assurance and public responsibility. Part 12 The future: the three Rs; the depreciation of man?; man and animal, trustee and companion.