Catatonic Rats

Old science books and articles are a great source of weird images. For instance, I found the two pictures below in Of Mice, Men and Molecules by John Heller (published in 1960). The images are titled "Catatonic rats" and have this explanatory caption:

These rats will maintain these weird positions for 15 to 30 minutes without moving. This catatonic effect has been induced by a minute amount of a chemical. The effect wears off completely in about an hour.

Unfortunately, Heller doesn't reveal what the chemical is that caused the rats to freeze in these positions. My guess is that it's LSD.

Who We Are
Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 18, 2008
Category: Animals | Drugs | Science | Experiments

Comments

Weird position for 15-30 minutes without moving? Shoot, I can do that without any chemical help. Maybe said chemical was tryptophan (yeah, I know that's mostly myth).

Posted by Darkness on 08/18/08 at 04:06 AM

@ Myrkul -- that must be what they pump into my office every day.

Posted by BikerPuppy on 08/18/08 at 03:40 PM

Stannous Fluoride, you're right DMT ain't no myth. But DMT is Dimethyltryptamine. Tryptophan is just the "turkey hormone." As in "I just ate enough to feed a small town and now I wonder why I'm tired . . . Gee it must be something in the turkey."

Posted by Darkness on 08/18/08 at 04:55 PM

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.