The Heart of Jumbo the Elephant

1904

It's the Biggest Heart in the World

ITHACA, N. Y., Jan. 30. — The biggest heart in the world, that of the elephant Jumbo, is preserved in the museum of the department of neurology, vertebrate zoology and physiology of Cornell University. If the heart were not so large it would stand in a glass jar on the shelves of the museum with hundreds of those of other animals and men.

But Jumbo's heart is so big that it lies in a barrel stowed away in the cellar of the museum, glass jars not being made large enough to hold the great mass of muscle. Some time it will be dissected by a class of students and then thrown away.

Jumbo had a heart ninety-eight times as large as the average human organ. It now weighs 36½ pounds, after having soaked several years in alcohol. A human heart, which weighs a little more than a pound, soaked in alcohol for the same length of time, weighs 10 ounces. The human heart is less than six inches long. Jumbo's is 28 inches, and 24 inches wide. The ordinary heart could be contained in the main artery of Jumbo's heart. The walls of the artery are five-eighths of an inch thick, while the walls of the ventricle are three inches thick.

When Jumbo met his heroic death at St. Thomas, Ont., trying to save the baby elephant and being himself killed by a locomotive, his carcass was sent to the Ward Natural Science establishment at Rochester. The skeleton was presented and put on exhibition and the hide mounted.

Dr. Burt G. Wilder of Cornell purchased the heart of the animal to add it to his colossal collection. The brains of Jumbo were also desired, but these had been shattered in the collision. When the heart reached Ithaca it was found impractical to preserve it by the process which retains its original shape, and so the organ was put in a barrel of alcohol. It had not been removed for years until Dr. Hugh D. Reed lifted it from the barrel to show to The Herald correspondent.

—The Sunday Herald, Syracuse, New York, Jan. 31, 1904, p. 23.

Legislation Needed for Human Vivisection

1902

No sooner had Dr. Russell, the Brooklyn physician who wishes to be vivisected, announced his wishes to the press and medical fraternity than it struck the army of the unemployed that here was the solution of the problem of existence. The very next day in New York City numerous volunteers applied for engagements on the operating table, provided they could make living — or as the case might be — dying wages at it. They admitted they were not scientists; but they were willing to advance the cause of science for a suitable consideration. No reasonable offer refused. If there was anything in it for them, they were ready to be vivisected, gentlemen, or perish in the attempt.

Unfortunately for the new vocation which seemed to be opening up to persons out of other employment, the New York authorities declare that the startling proposition of human vivisection comes under the laws regulating murder, manslaughter and homicide, and cannot, therefore, be put into effect without encountering legal opposition of a zealous and determined character. The repeal of the obnoxious laws seems absolutely necessary before human vivisection can be practiced freely and enthusiastically on the part of either vivisectionists or vivisected.

The lawyers are agreed about that, but the doctors, as usual, are not agreed about anything in particular. Some say that human vivisection is eminently desirable, while others say that they cannot see why they should pay high prices to human subjects when guinea pigs and rabbits are so cheap. As to Dr. Russell himself, however, most physicians and surgeons are agreed that there is one part of him the opening of which would greatly interest them, and that is his brain.

Teacher Vivisects Live Cat Before Pupils

Des Moines, Iowa, 1909--

VIVISECTED A LIVE "TABBY" BEFORE PUPILS

Frantic Meouws Resounded Through School Building, Accuser of Teacher Charges.

UP TO HUMANE SOCIETY

Cutting a cat alive as its death shrieks resounded throughout the building, for the edification of her pupils, was the charge made against Miss Moon, teacher of the Fifth and Sixth grades of the Pleasantville school, at the office of the humane society today.

The informant says that Miss Moon is so proud of the accomplishment that next time she proposes to dissect a dog to demonstrate the functions of the digestive organs. The cat, it is said, was butchered to illustrate the uses of the heart and the circulation.

Mrs. Elizabeth Baird wrote her a scathing letter yesterday afternoon. She explained that the charge comes under the criminal statutes, punishable by fine of $100 or 30 days in the county jail. She said that she will arrest Miss Moon for cruelty.

The letter of her informant, says that Miss Moon asked Dr. Bare to help her, and that he replied that he wasn't in that kind of business. Following the rebuff it appears that she went to Dr. Bell, who told her that it would be almost impossible to chloroform a cat, and the writer says she doesn't know whether the drug was administered or not, but that the cat could he heard howling during the operation.

--The Des Moines News, Des Moines, Iowa, February 21, 1909, page 7.