Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Playing with your dog: 1667

An Account of an Experiment made by M. Hook, of Preserving Animals alive by Blowing through their Lungs with Bellows.

I did heretofore give this Illustrious Society an account of an Experiment I formerly tryed of keeping a Dog alive after his Thorax was all displayed by cutting away the Ribbs and Diaphragme; and after the Pericardium of the Heart also was taken off....

...the Dog being kept alive by the Reciprocal blowing up of his Lungs with Bellowes, and they suffered to subside, for the space of an hour or more...

--From Philosophical transactions--

I bet there weren't a lot of stray dogs around Hook's house.

6 comments:

Pete said...

I imagine his dogs would fine the phrase "Man's best friend" a little dubious.

Jennifer said...

Was he perhaps later mauled to death by vengeful pack animals, she asks hopefully.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Jennifer: Was he perhaps later mauled to death by vengeful pack animals, she asks hopefully.

I haven't been putting animal cruelty tags on these posts. Even though the philosopher in question kept a dog alive and conscious for an hour with most of its chest cut out, other people of his time did worse. They would do horrible things to animals in front of sold-out audiences; who would laugh and applaud.

Sometimes people in the past were very much like us, and sometimes they were like aliens. What really freaks me out though, is that from now on, every time I hear of a person kept alive by artificial respiration, I'm going to remember how it was invented.

Beth said...

Jason, did you read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy?

This account is brought to life in excruciating detail.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Beth, Yes, Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite authors!

Beth said...

Jason - he's one of mine, too.