Celebrating Halloween after the fact feels really stale and lame, like the god-awful candy corn I got last night at the mall while dressed up as Little Lord Fauntleroy. (I wasn't even trick-or-treating; that's just my Wednesday night.)
Still, that shouldn't stop you from perusing NewScientist's list of the top 10 most bizarre experiments.
Included is research on giving LSD to elephants, tickling infants and grafting two heads on one dog, among other wacky things. Special credit must go to Stubbins Ffirth, a 19th-century med student who drank black vomit to research yellow fever, for 1) having the kick-ass name Stubbins, and 2) drinking vomit.
He started by making a small incision in his arm and pouring "fresh black vomit" obtained from a yellow-fever patient into the cut. He didn't get sick.
But he didn't stop there. His experiments grew progressively bolder. He made deeper incisions in his arms into which he poured black vomit. He dribbled the stuff in his eyes. He filled a room with heated "regurgitation vapours" - a vomit sauna - and remained there for 2 hours, breathing in the air. He experienced a "great pain in my head, some nausea, and perspired very freely", but was otherwise OK.
Next Ffirth began ingesting the vomit. He fashioned some of the black matter into pills and swallowed them down. He mixed half an ounce of fresh vomit with water and drank it. "The taste was very slightly acid," he wrote. "It is probable that if I had not, previous to the two last experiments, accustomed myself to tasting and smelling it, that emesis would have been the consequence." Finally, he gathered his courage and quaffed pure, undiluted black vomit fresh from a patient's mouth. Still he didn't get sick.
That's what I call dedicated. In fact, the whole article is a celebration of dedicated scientists following their hearts and committing to the search for hard data, no matter what the cost. At least, that's what I always say when visitors ask me about the smell coming from my basement.
Top 10 bizarre experiments (NewScientist, subscription required)
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