I recently saw a film on the web.archive.org web site, involving Soviet experimentations that were apparently performed on dogs in the prior half of the 20th century, and it had some guy narrating the whole thing in English, somehow trying to prove the Soviets were good for something - like bringing animals back from the dead. The experiments involved bringing dogs that had been dead for a few minutes “back to life” by means of a mechanism called the autojector, which did the lung and heart work. They even showed a decapitated dog head hooked up to this gadget, responding to stimuli (stuff like licking at a treat, following a moving object with its eyes). The film ended with the whole-bodied once-dead dogs 1 year later, happy and playing with Scary Soviet Scientist Man in the lab. I thought, “Wow this is neat, I didn’t know this stuff was possible, and that long ago too!” because I’m morbid like that, and naive too! But then someone told me that they had read about said film, and that it was all propaganda and fake. I’m not a scientist, and so I don’t know who to believe, or whether what the film shows was or is possible.
So my questions are a) was this film for real? I’m sorry I can’t remember the name of it, and b) if it wasn’t for real, what’s the story/motivation behind it? Those are some killer special effects, if that is the case.
Well, it’s possible that the Soviet brought back dogs that were CLINICALLY dead (i.e. heart stops, not breathing), which people and animals can be for a few minutes before becoming brain dead. Brain death, of course, is irreversible.
As for the dog heads, that is entirely possible. In fact, similar research as done in the United States back in the 1970s by one Dr. Robert White. He worked with monkeys, though. Not dogs. His work mostly was focused on transplanting the head of one monkey onto the body of another monkey, although, as I recall, he kept a brain (Without the rest of the body, or even the head) alive on a life support system for a couple of days.
I would imagine that the test animals all died, either as a result of the experiment or by euthanasia. Tissue Rejection would be a major problem with a “body transplant” (The term Dr. White prefers) unless anti-rejection drugs were administered. And the subject would be left paralyzed in any case, as the severed spinal cord can’t regenerate.
You might be interested in a book called “If we can keep a severed head alive…” by Chet Fleming (Not the author’s real name, I’ve heard. But that’s the name he was published under) It was mentioned in the reference book (One of Cecil’s competitors, actually. Sorry, Cecil. But you had your chance ) I’ve gotten most of this information from. Unfortunately, from what I hear, “If we can keep a severed head alive…” is a little short on technical information, and a little long on paranoid ravings about immortal decapitated dictators.
Well, I hope I’ve been of some help, and BTW, could you send me a link to the film you saw? It sounds interesting.
Ranchoth
…By the way, was the Soviet film you saw the one where they were drowning the experimental dogs in a fish tank so they could revive them later*? If so, I saw a bit of that film on the Discovery Channel once, sans the severed head, though.
Ranchoth
*One of the more disturbing things I’ve seen on film, I might add.
My apologies for not being clear - they didn’t reattach the severed head shown to its original body after doing the experiment on it, but with the intact dogs, they were shown alive again after the experiment. Their spinal cords weren’t severed, the autojector device was just hooked up at some place in their neck/shoulder blade area. I think. I’ve posted a link to the film below in this thread if you want to check it out.
Not sure if it was the same film - they didn’t cover how the dogs had died, unless they meant to imply they killed them themselves in the lap. No fish tank though.
) I’ve gotten most of this information from. Unfortunately, from what I hear, “If we can keep a severed head alive…” is a little short on technical information, and a little long on paranoid ravings about immortal decapitated dictators.