In article , Flying Tadpole
wrote:

Peter Wiley wrote:

In article , Flying Tadpole
wrote:

FYI

Toads used to be pithed for frankensteinian biology experiments,
particularly dealing with hearts and nervous systems. Take one
live toad, preferably a cane toad, hold firmly by the back legs
so that it doesn't fly across the laboratory on the up swing,
swing around one's head then bring it down hard so that the head
cracks against the edge of the laboratory bench (not so hard that
its head snaps off and flies across the laboratory). Toad should
be unconscious or dead after that. Ignore movement. Sever the
backbone at the neck then with a probe push up the spinal nerve
conduit and pulp the spinal nerve and the cerebellum. Ignore
movement while doing so. Dissect out the heart, suspend between
supports, flood with saline and apply various stimulants. Watch
it beat. dissect out other bits of nerve and muscle, apply
electrodes, charge, watch responses.

The most revolting thing I was forced to do as an innocent
student.

Wimp. That was a lot of fun. The real challenge was doing it to lab
rats. You had to get the swing and angle just right to crack their
heads on the edge of the lab bench. My wife was doing Hons at the time
and killing rats wholesale.

The real hassle used to come when the rat's scaly tail skin would come
off halfway through the downswing. Catching a partially skinned rat in
a lab is pretty hilarious but you want to tuck your pants into your
socks first.

PDW

I avoided the psych students.

Biochem, not psych. Psych students were almost useless.

Skinning rats was a problem in the days I was teaching wildlife
courses. Rats had to held very carefully to avoid damaging tails
(prone to infection) while marking them (toe-clipping, not very
prone to infection but now proscribed). Had to bump of the rats
students significantly damaged, but that wasn't very many. I
used to enjoy watching students come back in from the early
morning mark/release sessions. You could tell which species of
rat they'd met by the amount of blood (theirs).

Ah, memories of trapping Rattus fuscipes in the national parks north of
Sydney and various animals round Smiths Lake. We got a possum in a big
trap one night. It wasn't happy.

Another time we fooled a kookaburra into swooping on a rubber snake and
trying to beat it to death on its tree.

My first degree had a major in population ecology. I picked all the
courses with good field trips.

PDW