placedtheratsinchambersat 107 degreesFahrenheit until
theirbodytemperatureroseto108.7degreesFahrenheit.The
researchers drew diagramscomparing the“urine spreading
pattern”ofaratwhohadeitherbeengivenatropine orhad
beensurgically “desalivated”with thatof an untreatedrat.
Theyfoundthe“atropinizedheat-stressedratmodel”tobe“a
promisingtoolwithwhichtoexaminetheroleofdehydration
in heat illness.”^86
Herewehavecitedaseriesofexperimentsgoingbackinto
thenineteenth century—and Ihavehad spacesufficient to
include only a fraction of the published literature. The
experimentsobviouslycausedgreatsuffering;andthemajor
findingseemstobetheadvicethatheatstrokevictimsshould
be cooled—something that seems to be fairly elementary
commonsenseandinanycasehadalreadybeenborneoutby
observations on human beings who have suffered natural
heatstroke.Asfortheapplicationofthisresearchtohuman
beings, B. W. Zweifach showed in 1961 that dogs are
physiologically different from human beings in ways that
affecttheirresponsetoheatstroke,andhencetheyareapoor
modelfor heatstrokein humanbeings.^87 It ishard to take
seriouslythesuggestionthatsmallfurryanimalsdruggedwith
atropinewhospreadurineoverthemselveswhenhotwillbea
better model.
Similarseriesofexperimentsaretobefoundinmanyother
fieldsofmedicine.IntheNewYorkCityofficesofUnited
Action for Animals there are filing cabinets full of
photocopies of experiments
reportedinthejournals.Eachthickfilecontainsreports on
numerousexperiments,oftenfiftyormore,andthelabelson
thefilestell theirownstory:“Acceleration,”“Aggression,”