FRAME's 40th birthday

This year marks two major anniversaries for FRAME, the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments. It is 50 years since the publication of a landmark treatise on humane experimental techniques and 40 years since FRAME was first founded.

The Nottingham based charity plans to celebrate both milestones with a series of events throughout 2009 to promote the work that it and other researchers carry out in a bid to find alternative methods of testing medicines and medical developments.

An invitation-only conference was held at the University of Nottingham called Animal Experimentation and the Three Rs: Past, Present and Future. It was also the official launch of an updated version of The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, by WMS Russell and RL Burch, which first set out the Three Rs philosophy.

The new book is called The Three Rs and the Humanity Criterion, a title taken from the text of the original version.  It is shorter and has had its language modernised to assist those who use English as a second language.

It has been edited and abridged by FRAME Chairman Michael Balls who said: “When I read the book, I found some of its passages so astounding that I have had to read them over and over again, year on year, sometimes aloud, whilst on my own. However, there were other passages which I found very difficult to follow.

“I greatly appreciate the use of English and the richness of the language used to illustrate the arguments, but I have to admit that The Principles is not an easy read. I began to wonder if I could do something to help to make The Principles more readily accessible to readers whose first language is not English. Some of the words and expressions used, though undoubtedly elegant, are not easily understood.”

Archived 23 June 09