(3 reviews) Author: Professor Anita Guerrini ISBN : 9780801871962 New from Format: PDFReview
"An excellent survey of human experimentation on both humans and animals. Her attention to interactions between experimenters and the societies in which they live offers a valuable sociohistorical context for understanding today's ethical debates over cloning, genetic engineering, and the breeding of animals to supply human body parts... A fine interdisciplinary work." -- Choice
"Anyone who has been frustrated by the lack of a general undergraduate text on the history of human and animal experimentation will be pleased to discover Anita Guerrini's book..her book will be essential to beginning students in the history of biology and medicine, to anyone interested in the historical development of human-animal relationships or the history of animal welfare, and to practicing biologists, in particular physiologists, who wish to understand both historic and current debates about the use of animals in the laboratory." -- Elizabeth Hanson, Journal of the History of Biology
"Unique, succinct, and informative... It is rare to mix the stories of animal and human research together, and this joint history has been little understood and appreciated among even modern day discussants... The history is well drawn and accurate. Inserts illustrating important historical documents provide a feel of the times and thinking under discussion. The mixture of history and ethics makes this appropriate both for mentors and young Martin Arrowsmiths." -- John P. Gluck, Journal of the American Medical Association
"Within its confines, the author presented a balanced review of historical highlights (perhaps also lowlifes depending on perspective) surrounding animal and human vivisection and use in research... This was a great read and I recommend it to all." -- Mark Klinger, Laboratory Animal Practitioner
"A compelling and engaging account of the ways experiments have been conducted on animals and humans from the time of Galen to the present. [Guerrini's] book is crucial not only for understanding the changing value placed on experiments over time but also because it invaluable deepens our knowledge of the history of medicine." -- Journal of the History of Medicine
"The selected historical episodes involve individuals who are so eccentric... and experiments that are so shocking... that Guerrini's book reads like a work of historical fiction and, in turn, is highly engaging. This, or course, is not to be understood as a challenge to the work's historical veracity; rather, it is to be understood as a tribute to the captivating nature of the subject matter as well as the way in which that subject matter is presented... one cannot help but find Experimenting to be highly engaging... But being engaging isn't the book's only virtue. It also reminds us of and underscores a number of important issues closely tied to the contemporary debate on human and nonhuman animal experimentation... Guerrini's highly engaging, informative treatment on the history of the Western world's experimentation with humans and nonhuman animals is strongly recommended." -- Robert P. Lovering, Medical Humanities Review
"Unique, succinct, and informative book... the history is well drawn and accurate... The mixture of history and ethics makes the book appropriate both for mentors and young Martin Arrowsmiths." -- John P. Gluck, PhD, JAMA
"Guerrini does a fine job of putting the anatomy and physiology studies of Galen, Harvey and Vesalius, and the vaccination work of Jenner, Pasteur, Koch and Salk in historical context." -- George J. Annas, Nature Medicine
"Well-written, highly accessible, and highlighting the major trends, events, and people in the history of Western medicine, experimental biology, and physiology, Experimenting with Humans and Animals is an excellent introductory text in the history of science or medicine." -- Dominique A. Tobbell, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"A fascinating tour through the history of animal experimentation, with reference to human experimentation for perspective." -- Norman M. Goldfarb, Journal of Clinical Research Best Practices
Review
"This book offers a cogently argued and impressively written history of human and animal experimentation since antiquity that explores with grace and sensitivity the philosophical, ethical and social issues raised by research on living creatures." -- Susan E. Lederer, Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine
- Series: Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Science
- Hardcover: 184 pages
- Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (June 15, 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801871964
- ISBN-13: 978-0801871962
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
Experimenting with Humans and Animals: From Galen to Animal Rights PDF
Written for a general audience with no science training, Anita Guerrini's Experimenting with Humans and Animals is a fascinating read. It's a well-written and thoroughly readable primer on some of the important scientific advances of Western science and medicine, and the role of experiments on humans and animals, over the past centuries. Guerrini is a professional historian who has also chaired her campus' Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
The book spans 2,284 years and both human and animal experimentation in just 160 pages. Guerrini talks not just about the ethics of using animal and human subjects, but also how scientific reasoning and knowledge have evolved over the years; it's a lot of ground to cover. Further, she tries to write of past events in light of then-current moral standards and then-current scientific knowledge.
Guerrini's strategy is to highlight a few exemplary case studies and then examine them in detail. Starting with Herophilus' permission from the king of Alexandria to dissect a living human criminal, she discusses the ancients' scientific debates about the value of post-mortem dissection versus living vivisection, and of the value of comparative (i.e. animal-based) work. She gives an in-depth review of Descartes and his influence, and of the 19th century tensions between the English (mostly opposed to animal experimentation) and the French physiologists (Magendie, Bernard) developing an animal-based research methodology.
Guerrini's discussions of immunology and vaccine development are particularly fascinating. She discusses both the early days of smallpox, rabies and diphtheria immunizations, before much of current immunology was known, and devotes a chapter to the development of polio vaccines.
Experimenting with Humans and Animals will appeal to a couple of different audiences. Instructors wanting a basic brief overview of its subject matter may find it useful. Experimenting will be of interest to observers of the animal rights debate and the discussion specific to vivisection. The text is not without bias or error, but I found it of interest.
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