1. Human Embryo Research: Yes or No?
by Gregory Bock; Maeve O'ConnorReview by: Clifford Grobstein The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 62, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), pp. 468-469Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2829535 . Accessed: 10/11/2014 15:28Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheQuarterly Review of Biology. http://www.jstor.org
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2. 468 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY VOLUME 62
cluding alternative hypotheses and constraints
alongside adaptive scenarios.
JOHN L. GITrLEMAN, Zoologya nd GraduateP rograms
in Ecology &Ethology, Universityo f TennesseeK, nox-ville,
Tennessee
HUMAN BIOLOGY & HEALTH
HUMAN BODY COMPOSITION. Growth, Aging Nutri-tion,
and Activity.
By GilbertB . Forbes.S pringer-VerlaNg ew York.
$66.00. ix + 350 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 0-387-
96394-4. 1987.
Methods of studying body composition and the
results and conclusions obtained by means of these
methods are reviewed in this fine book. A long ini-tial
review of techniques is followed by chapters on
body composition of the fetus, child, and adult, and
on effects of pregnancy, nutrition, activity, hor-mones,
trauma and disease.
As in any other endeavor, the validity of conclu-sions
depends on the trustworthiness of techniques
used to acquire data. The author therefore criti-cally
reviews the methods used in studying human
body composition and the multiplication of errors
resulting from using indirect methods. Thus den-sitometric
techniques assume that the ratios of skele-ton
to water to proteins are constants in all persons;
this is not true (e.g., osteoporotics). Formulae based
on normal data cannot be expected to work with
sick people - they are not normal. If values of Lean
Body Mass (from K or water) are subtracted from
Weightto give Fat, a big relative error can result be-cause
of the subtraction of one large number from
another large number.
There are a few points on which I would take is-sue.
Mixtures of units are annoying; on p. 41, for
instance, 40K in the body is expressed in milligrams,
dpm and nanocuries. SI units should have been
used. On the same page, the radiation effect of
alpha-emitting radon daughters is omitted - it dou-bles
the natural background dose to 0.2 rem per year.
The author perpetuates myths about neutron
activation. To say that neutron activation is "very
expensive" (Table 2.16) whereas a CAT scanner is
merely "expensive"is completely reversing things.
A nitrogen facility is ten times cheaper than a CAT
scanner; and gives 100 times less radiation. The au-thor
has probably been misled by the quite unneces-sarily
expensive Brookhaven calcium facility and
has not studied routine clinical facilities.
On p. 54 the author writes of the "obvious im-possibility"
of a patient losing weight while gaining
nitrogen, and uses this to suggest large technical er-rors.
A growing obese person on a reducing diet
that is protein-sparingc ould well change in this way.
Persons taking anabolic steroids also gain nitrogen
and lose fat (p. 270), but because of the positive
energy balance, they gain weight.
Any worker in the fields of body composition or
nutrition is encouraged to acquire this worthwhile
volume.
K.G. MCNEILL, Physics &Medicine, University of
Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
HUMAN EMBRYO RESEARCH: YES OR No? The Ciba
Foundation.
Editedb yG regorByo cka ndM aeveO 'ConnoPru. blished
for theC ibaF oundatiobny T avistocPku blicationLs,o n-dona
ndN ew York$. 39.95. xv + 232 p.; ill.; name
and subject indexes. ISBN: 0-422-60590-5.
1986.
The content of this book is neatly encapsulated by
the title. It is a report on a Ciba Foundation Sym-posium
held on November 6 and 7, 1985, based on
a proposal from Dr. Anne McLaren, FRS, Direc-tor
of the Medical Research Council's Mammalian
Development Unit at University College London.
She was joined by 26 other participants including
Robert G. Edwards, FRS, well known as a pioneer
in bringing reproductive biology into the clinical
infertility orbit. Also participating were John Mad-dox,
editor of Nature, and Stephen Luck, editor of
the British Medical Journal. Among other distin-guished
participantsw ere almost a dozen specialists
in reproductive biology, obstetrics and gynecology,
and genetics. Representatives from the law, philos-ophy
and ethics, social science, and technology
rounded out the group and were active participants
in presentation and discussion.
Thirteen presentations with recorded discussion
by participants make up the substance of the book.
The presentations deal with subjects ranging from
embryology through infertility, in vitro fertilization,
(IVF), genetic and congenital disease, contracep-tion,
morality, religion and philosophy. The discus-sions
focus on the presentations with special em-phasis
on the status of the "pre-embryo" Since the
symposium took place not long after publication of
the Warnock Report and several participants were
involved in that report, the Report receives a good
deal of attention.
This is a British group wrestling with British
policy, but much of what is said is generalizable to
other arenas, including the U.S. From comments
made, it is clear that an informal agenda existed - to
make the case for the need for research on human
embryos, while recognizing at least equal need for
constraint, given the social climate. Indeed, the sym-posium
might almost be seen as a response to an
earlier editorial in Nature calling upon embryolo-
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3. DECEMBER 1987 NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 469
gists to be specific about what and why important
research objectives require human embryos.
The case is made with respect to clinical diagno-sis
of infertility, improvement of IVF efficacy, con-traception,
genetic diagnosis and congenital mal-formation.
To an already biased eye the case is
substantial. However, the case made for a policy for
confronting the deep issues raised is less persuasive;
indeed, there is some suggestion that informal con-versations
off-stage may have disclosed even deeper
divisions than are revealed on-stage. In any event
the volume will be illuminating to those who have
not thought much about human embryo research
and was fascinating to read by one who has. It is
to be hoped that, for both, this volume will help
to bring the human embryo and its status out of
the closet -a worthwhile accomplishment indeed!
CLIFFORD GROBSTEIN, Science,T echnolog&y Pub-licA
ffairsU, niversitoyf CaliforniaS,a nD iegoL, ajolla,
California
GENETIC AND PERINATAL EFFECTS OF ABUSED SUB-STANCES.
Cell Biology: A Series of Monographs.
Editedb yM oniqueC . Braudea ndArthuMr Zimmer-man;
S erieEs ditorsD: . E. Buetowe ta l. AcademiPcr ess,
Orlando(F lorida).$ 55.00. x + 211 p.; ill.; index.
ISBN: 0-12-126002-X. 1987.
The editors present nine invited papers exploring
the impact of "drugs of abuse" on fetal development.
The chapters focus on the structural effects of opi-ates,
cannabinoids, nicotine, and ethanol on cell de-velopment
in the user, and in one chapter, on fetal
development. There is an introduction to methods
of assessing genetic toxicity; discussions of phar-macogenetic
models; descriptions of the immuno-logic
effects of opiates and cannabinoids, of em-bryopathic
and neuro-behavioral changes in fetal
development, and of changes in spermatogenesis
with the use of cannabis.
The chapters provide almost no control data, and
only occasionally refer to the effects of commonly
used substances on these systems. This apparent bias
makes it impossible for the reader to assess the clin-ical
significance or practical relevance of the find-ings
presented.
For a more balanced and broader description of
the genetic effects of chemicals in common use, the
reader is preferentially referred to the Handbooko f
BehavioraTl eratologeyd, ited by E.R Riley and C.V.
Voorhees (Plenum Press, New York, 1986).
MAX FINK, PsychiatryS,t ateU niversitoyf New York,
Stony Brook, New York
LINDOW MAN: THE BODY IN THE BOG.
ByI . M Stead,J B. Bourkea, ndD onB rothwelPl. ub-lishedfort
heT rusteeosf theB ritishM useumb yB ritish
MuseumP ublicationsa nd CornellU niversityP ress,
Ithaca( New York)$.2 5.00. 208 p.; ill.; index. ISBN:
0-8014-1998-0. 1986.
In connection with shortages of fuel during and af-ter
World War II, the northwestern European raised
bogs were intensively utilized, and by this means
a large number of important archeological finds
were made. The most important were the so-called
bog bodies - bodies that, in the same way as other
organic material, had been preserved by the acidifer-ous
and therefore antiseptic water in the raised bogs.
The best known among these are Tollund Man and
Grauballe Man.
During the 1950s peat-cutting operations closed
down, and consequently hardly anyone ever imag-ined
that new bog bodies would be discovered. It
was therefore extraordinarily interesting when, in
1984, the well-preserved body of Lindow Man was
found near Manchester, England. "Well preserved"
is saying too much, since one of his legs and the
lower part of his body had disappeared into the peat;
the rest, however, was excavated and examined with
impressive precision. That is what this book is
about.
The British archeologists cannot be praised too
highly for irnmediately forming a team, including
doctors and biologists, 35 in all, who proceeded to
examine Lindow Man from the perspective of their
individual areas of expertise. The examinations are
carefully described here by their respective investi-gators
and, at the end of the book, I. M. Stead has
summarized the results.
These results are very exciting, often agreeing with
what is known from the Danish side. Altogether,
we now have a very good picture of Iron Age men
in northwesternE urope- from how they looked and
the fact that they suffered from an intestinal worm
to what they had been eating immediately before
they were killed. Lindow Man, who was 168 cm tall
and had blood type 0, was killed by garotting, per-haps
combined with a stab wound to the throat; he
further had received two violent blows to the back
of his head and a rib had been broken -all appar-ently
very cruel, but further investigations indicate
that he was a sacrifice and not a criminal who had
been executed, which corresponds exactly to what
seems to have happened to the Danish bog bodies.
The difficulties of getting Lindow Man dated by
means of carbon-14 analyses are described here in
detail. It is a little embarrassing that the labora-tory
in Oxford dates him to about 100 A.D., whereas
the laboratory in Harwell dates him to 400 A.D.,
with a single dating, however, as early as 450 B.C.
The difference in the datings might be due to,
among other things, different methods having been
used in removing humic acid from the test tissues.
I hope that the two laboratories will quickly attempt
to find the reason for this disagreement, which might
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