BOOKS ET AL. ments. And Parliament had no right to interfere with personal life. The strengths of For the Love of Animals are the many well-told anecdotes. These illuminate the horrors of lower-class blood Charles G. Gross sports, the growth of the practice of keeping pets, performing animals, fake and real monFor the Love of Animals he abuse of animals has “criminal” animals, and a great sters, animal “crimes,” and the colorful perThe Rise of the Animal a long history, as do variety of other entertainments sonalities of those supporting or opposing Protection Movement religious and philoinvolving the maiming and animal protection laws. sophical justifications for such usually death of animals were Alas, the book does not deal adequately or by Kathryn Shevelow practices. Ancient Greek scienpopular entertainments across at all with a number of important developments Henry Holt, New York, 2008. tists dissected live mammals classes. These activities seem in the history of animal rights through this 365 pp. $27.50, C$30.50. with no compunction. After all, to have been endemic and period. One is the influence of Jeremy ISBN 9780805080902. unlike humans, other mamgave us such terms as cockpit Bentham’s utilitarianism. He wrote in 1789, mals did not possess the high(where cocks fought), hangdog “The day may come when the rest of the animal est form of pneuma, rational or psychic (the expression on the face of a dog executed creation may acquire those rights which never pneuma. [However, the great Roman physi- for a crime like filching a piece of meat), dog- could have been withheld from them but by the cian-researcher Galen did prefer to work on fight, top dog, and underdog. Such occasions hand of tyranny.… The question is not Can they pigs rather than monkeys, to avoid the were considered valuable to developing reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they “unpleasant expression” (1) on the monkeys’ British virility, as in The Beggar’s Opera when suffer?” (2). Another is the startling difference faces when they were tied down and cut into.] Polly Peachum advised the beginning pick- between the British (who Shevelow makes out Saint Augustine thought there was no “com- pocket Filch, “You must go to Hockley in the to be particularly bloodthirsty) and the French. munity of right” between humans and animals Hole and Marybone, child, to learn valour.” Francois Magendie and Claude Bernard, the and therefore no restriction on using or killing Those were sites of bearbaiting, a euphemism French founders of modern experimental physthem. Later Saint Thomas Aquinas set the for dogs tearing apart a chained bear or being iology, routinely carried out vivisection on Christian line: “By the divine providence [ani- killed in the attempt. awake animals and were French heroes. By mals] are intended for man’s use. … Hence it The book’s hero is Colonel Richard contrast, English biologists such as Marshall is not wrong for man to make use of them, “Humanity Dick” Martin, M.P., a fiery Irish Hall and Charles Bell inveighed against such either by killing or in any other way whatever.” aristocrat, scarred from multiple duels. He practices. Indeed, a famous portrait of Bernard Aquinas did note, in a continuing tradition, played a major role in the “world’s first animal vivisecting a rabbit became an antivivisection that being cruel to animals might be bad as it protection law,” Parliament’s “Ill-Treatment of poster in England. A third important but could lead to being cruel to people. Descartes, Cattle Act” of 1822. In 1835, a year after he omitted subject is the widespread interest in the uber-rationalist pillar of the evolution—from the writings of JeanBanned in 1835. Bull baiting (print, 1820). Enlightenment (and a physiolBaptiste Lamarck, Robert Chambers, ogist as well), taught that Erasmus Darwin, and others—that humans and all other animals clearly implied the continuity of were machines. Nevertheless, human and other animals. he held that only humans had a Lastly, it was disappointing that rational soul, making them Shevelow ends her account before alone capable of feeling pain. discussing the great struggle over In doing so, he deviated from animal experimentation in the 1870s. almost every commentator That decade, the formidable Frances from Aristotle on—including Power Cobbe headed a coalition of the church fathers, who realfeminists, abolitionists, vegetarians, ized that animals could suffer. and anti-immunizers against the The screams of a tortured animedical and scientific establishmal, Descartes believed, were ment, including Thomas Huxley and just squeaks of a machine. Charles Darwin. The extended battle Kathryn Shevelow’s For involved Queen Victoria and the Love of Animals offers a fascinating died, the act was extended to bulls, dogs, and Disraeli, the arrest of the physiologist David account of the development of the animal pro- even cats. Previously, starting in 1800, pro- Ferrier, and real street agitation. It led to the tection movement in Great Britain in the 18th posed laws against bull baiting or for the pro- compromises that became the bases of laws and early 19th centuries. There were plenty of tection of other animals had been repeatedly regulating animal experimentation in the animals to be protected—and not merely defeated. The arguments against such laws United Kingdom and, eventually, the rest of working animals. Bear baiting, dog fights, were manifold but boiled down to three prin- the world. All these developments have been bull runs, cockfights, public executions of cipal objections: If one stopped bull and bear treated in detail in works by Richard French baiting, next might be upper-class blood (3) and Nicolaas Rupke (4), neither of which, sports like fox hunting (not outlawed until curiously, is cited in the book. The reviewer is at the Department of Psychology and the 2005). The working classes should not be Shevelow (a specialist in 18th-century Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. E-mail:
[email protected] deprived of their traditional British entertain- British literature at the University of CaliBIOETHICS
Early Steps Toward Animal Rights
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BOOKS ETAL.
References 1. Galen, On Anatomical Procedures: The Later Books, W. L. H. Duckworth, Transl. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1962). 2. J. Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, J. H. Burns, L. L. A. Hart, Eds. (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1996). 3. R. D. French, Antivivisection and Medical Science in Victorian Society (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1975). 4. N. A. Rupke, Ed., Vivisection in Historical Perspective (Croom-Helm, London, 1987). 10.1126/science.1173236
MULTICELLULAR ORGANIZATION
Hows and Whys of Coming Together Rex L. Chisholm
he cellular slime molds occupy an interesting place in biology. Sometimes viewed by model-organism purists as a stepsister in the family of model systems, their intriguing place in evolution, their interesting life-style, and (to some extent) their gee whiz curiosity factor put Dictyostelium into nearly every basic biology textbook. In The Social Amoebae, John Tyler Bonner, the current patriarch of the slime mold community, provides a personal, insightful, and sometimes whimsical overview of the biology of these fascinating organisms. Bonner (an emeritus professor of biology at Princeton University) sets out to give a broad picture of the state of knowledge and to highlight key outstanding questions where study of the social amoebae might offer important new insights. He succeeds admirably at these goals. The book consists of eight short chapters focused on topics that include evolution, ecology, behavior, morphogenesis, and differentiation. In each chapter, Bonner lays out his view of what is known about Dictyostelium, placing it in the context of
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The reviewer is at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 East Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. E-mail:
[email protected]
the opportunity to live on. Bonner explores how this behavior is influenced by genetic relatedness. It is interesting and important that mixtures of species will sort themselves out— limiting the benefit of loss of self to genetically related individuals. One fascinating story highlights mutants that cheat death by preferentially becoming spores when mixed with normal cells, but which produce normal fruiting bodies and stalks when in pure populations composed only of cheaters. This behavior raises a number of compelling quesMarked for study. A Dictyostelium discoideum tions for biologists to ponder—exactly fruiting body whose spores have been tagged with Bonner’s goal for telling the story. Although it is amazing that individual green fluorescent protein in (left, transmitted light; cells sacrifice their individuality for the good right, fluorescent microscopy). of the species, equally astonishing are the broader biological questions of biology, and complex behaviors the tissues they form can points to interesting aspects that still need to exhibit. In his chapter on behaviors of the be explored. amoebae and cell masses, Bonner highlights When considering evolution, the author the phototactic and thermotactic capabilities focuses on why these organisms might have of the multicellular pseudoplasmodium or come to be “social.” A crucial feature of the slug stage. There is still much to be learned social amoebae life cycle is the transition about how these tissues coordinate activities from single amoebae to a multicellular “tis- of thousands of cells to produce a slug that sue” composed of hundreds of thousands of can crawl directionally in response to its individual cells. It is widely believed the main environment. Unlike the typical metazoan, value of this interesting example of biological social amoebae populations grow to maxicooperation is to maximize the spread of the mize their numbers of individual amoebae, organism. Typically, this cooperation is whereas most multicellular organisms grow driven by starvation—a key in the context of tissue formabiological indicator of hard tion. Bonner suggests slime The Social Amoebae times. Most of the social molds offer many lessons The Biology of Cellular amoebae use the power of about how to make a tissue. He Slime Molds cooperation to produce strucdescribes what happens when tures that elevate the spores a slug is cut in half—it forms by John Tyler Bonner from the surfaces on which the two new slugs that ultimately Princeton University Press, cells had been growing, with produce two smaller but Princeton, NJ, 2009. the spores sitting atop (or normally proportioned fruit156 pp. $19.95, £11.95. along) a stalk of some sort. ing bodies—or when one ISBN 9780691139395. Bonner discusses the idea that slug happens to crawl across this maximizes the possibility another—they are as likely to of insects picking up spores and carrying swap posterior halves as not. Bonner corthem much greater distances than might hap- rectly notes that we have a lot to learn from pen by more passive modes of distribution, these “simple” organisms. such as being blown by the wind. He wonders The Social Amoebae is certainly a mustwhether the social nature of the slime molds read for anyone working with these orgaarose after the appearance of insects that nisms. It should also reward any biologist could serve to maximize the dispersion of interested in social behavior, ecology, and spores. One interesting observation Bonner evolution. An easy Sunday afternoon read, notes is that the evolutionarily more recent the book will keep the biologist engaged and species tend to have larger fruiting bodies provide the nonbiologist many interesting than the more ancient species—a potential phenomena to ponder. In an era when point of support for ongoing selection for research is driven by technological developmaximizing spore dispersion. ments and sophisticated instrumentation, The social amoebae provide a nearly Bonner celebrates the power of keen obserunique experimental opportunity to explore vation, simple but insightful experiments, biological “altruism.” A typical feature of and the importance of keeping in mind the their life cycle is the sacrifice of some cells to big picture. These are worthwhile reminders become stalk cells that ultimately die and play for all who love science. only a supporting role for the spores that have 10.1126/science.1172838
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fornia, San Diego) makes her position clear at the end of the book. There she solicits contributions to, among other groups, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, some of whose leadership and members have been involved in advocating and carrying out actions against animal experimentation. Although sometimes sentimental and even treacly, For the Love of Animals provides an interesting if rather anecdotal prehistory of the animal rights movement in Britain.
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