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"Very well-researched and delivered in an engaging, breezy, wink-wink tone similar to that of Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg's Why Do Men Have Nipples?, this will likely be enjoyed equally by science buffs and casual aficionados of the curious. One of the finest science/history bathroom books of all time." -Kirkus Reviews |
#5: The Isolated Head of a Dog
What could be more horrific than creating a two-headed dog? What about keeping the severed head of a dog alive apart from its body! Ever since the carnage of the French Revolution, when the guillotine sent thousands of severed heads tumbling into baskets, scientists had wondered whether it would be possible to keep a head alive apart from its body, but it wasn't until the late 1920s that someone managed to pull off this feat.
Soviet physician Sergei Brukhonenko developed a primitive heart-lung machine he called an "autojector," and with this device he succeeded in keeping the severed head of a dog alive. He displayed one of his living dog heads in 1928 before an international audience of scientists at the Third Congress of Physiologists of the USSR. To prove that the head lying on the table really was alive, he showed that it reacted to stimuli. Brukhonenko banged a hammer on the table, and the head flinched. He shone light in its eyes, and the eyes blinked. He even fed the head a piece of cheese, which promptly popped out the esophageal tube on the other end.
Brukhonenko's severed dog head became the talk of Europe and inspired the playwright George Bernard Shaw to muse, "I am even tempted to have my own head cut off so that I can continue to dictate plays and books without being bothered by illness, without having to dress and undress, without having to eat, without having anything else to do other than to produce masterpieces of dramatic art and literature."
[On YouTube: See Experiments in the revival of organisms.]
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 1 of 3 pages 1 2 3 >
Ah! :(
Posted by Jackie on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 03:01 PM
how long did it live for?
Posted by TJ on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 11:04 PM
He should have tried with his own head.
Posted by follower on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 04:56 AM
I think Ill Take The Rest Of The Day Off,If They Really Did That In The 1920s,It Scares Me What They Get Up To These Days,Mabe They Could Make It A Requirement For The Heads Of Some States.
Posted by LEE on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 07:27 AM
As fake as it gets... Dogs neck wasn't shown, small body and right angle. Funniest thing is that DOG RAISED ITS HEAD, zero gravity too?
Posted by asd on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 07:33 AM
Can't believe how crazy scientists can be.
http://www.puppy-dog-breeds.com
Posted by Mike on Sat Sep 01, 2007 at 10:57 PM
HOLY CRAP thats mad
Posted by Allen on Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 12:29 AM
This experiment was a fraud. Period.
Posted by J on Fri Sep 14, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Not fake. Check out this documentary. The dog head part starts around 4:30.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap1co5ZZHYE
Posted by Nob Ody on Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 10:13 AM
Mr Shaw certainly overrated his literary ability, didn't he?
Posted by Bob on Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 03:35 PM
Hah! The technology to keep heads alive without bodies was invented by Ron Popeil, not Brukhonenko.
This is clearly a fake, as the head is not suspended in a jar full of fluid.
Posted by Sam on Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 02:18 AM
Sam's right, it was Ron Popeil. We saw it on Futurama, so we know it's true!
Posted by Algolei on Sun Oct 07, 2007 at 02:09 AM
George A. Romero referenced this experiment in his film 'Day of the Dead'. A mad scientist-type keeps the severed head of a recently deceased and zombified victim alive using electrodes.
Sick...but awesome.
Posted by Hugo on Wed Oct 10, 2007 at 07:06 PM
Wow, I wouldve figured you did a bit of research past watching videos on youtube if you were going to put it in a book. Try moving your head without the use of your neck muscles which attach to your body. The bodyless dog seemed to be able to do so.
How can he lick his face if his toungue muscle extends deep into the throat, where it has been severed?
Posted by Alexander Sun on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 04:59 PM
i think that i stupid and crewl and and even though im 14 i think its ridiculous and you need to get a new set of brains.....
Posted by Losa on Sun Nov 11, 2007 at 06:11 PM
Here you can see the whole 20min movie:
http://www.archive.org/details/Experime1940
I never did wach the whole thing, but I am sure it is real.
LONG LIVE THE COMUNIST PARTY!!!
Posted by Da Comrad on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 02:41 AM
I am ashamed to call myself human when I see things like this
Posted by S on Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 01:52 PM
OK, S, we won't call you a human. Just the filthy dog (b1tch) that you are.
Posted by S's master on Tue Jan 22, 2008 at 07:55 AM
That's so ridiculously awesome.
Posted by Sebor on Fri Feb 01, 2008 at 07:59 PM
i agree with alexander, it would be impossible to actually keep a dogs head alive. First there is the problem of circulation. blood needs oxygen and after a certain period there is no way to restore it once it was lost. 2nd the dog could not perform the simply task of licking if it had no oxygen going to the brain. It looks like a hoax. im pretty sure that it is.
Posted by beatrix on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 08:15 AM
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