In attempting to justify animal experiments, Chris Magee (Argus, November 5) has made statements which need correcting.

Firstly, his claim that animal research gave us insulin for diabetic dogs and humans is inaccurate.

In his book Clinical Medical Discoveries, the physician and medical historian Dr M Beddow Bayly pointed out that experiments on dogs ‘proved nothing of value to human medicine’ and ‘the discovery and application of insulin was a clinical one, though constantly claimed as due to animal experimentation.’

As to animal-based cancer research, the renowned Dr Linus Pauling wrote: “Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud.”

Professor DH Smyth, when Chairman of the Research Defence Society, described it as a field of research which has consumed an ‘enormous number of animals without any tangible result.’

It is hardly surprising that increasing numbers of doctors are forming groups to oppose vivisection and that universities in Germany are moving away from using animals for medical education and research, recognising that it is often very dangerous to base the treatment of human ailments on data obtained from other species.

Dennis B Stuart
Fitzhardinge House
Marine Parade
Brighton