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CATEGORIES:Cabinet of Natural History
SUMMARY:Harvesting toads in South Africa for pregnancy tes
 ting in Britain - Jesse Olszynko-Gryn (Department 
 of History and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20130311T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20130311T141500
UID:TALK42489AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/42489
DESCRIPTION:After World War II\, various toads replaced mice a
 nd rabbits as pregnancy-test animals in diagnostic
  laboratories around the world. This talk examines
  the divergent strategies adopted by competing lab
 oratories to acquire and maintain stock of exotic 
 and domestic toads for human pregnancy diagnosis i
 n postwar Britain. Commercial dealers and the Depa
 rtment of Inland Fisheries in South Africa harvest
 ed the locally abundant species\, Xenopus laevis\,
  from the wild and attempted to breed the animal i
 n captivity. However\, as only a handful of large 
 and specialised 'pregnancy diagnosis centres' in B
 ritain could afford the elaborate and expensive eq
 uipment required to sustain a healthy colony of Xe
 nopus\, many small hospital laboratories preferred
  the ordinary British toad\, Bufo bufo\, which the
 y could obtain and discard indiscriminately. Ironi
 cally\, the imported Xenopus proved less resistant
  to laboratory life in Britain than did the domest
 ic Bufo\, which often starved to death or died of 
 'unknown causes' in captivity.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philoso
 phy of Science
CONTACT:
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