Re: road kill; also cats and pets

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From:"J. A. Kiernan" <jkiernan@julian.uwo.ca>
To:Amos Brooks <atbrooks@snet.net>
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  Another source of small animals is a well fed cat that brings
  things home instead of eating them. About 1970, the cat of a
  colleague in Cambridge collected 2 or 3 of the species used
  in a study of mast cells in the brain. (The colleague put the 
  heads in jars of fixative - alcoholic Bouin or Carnoy - that 
  I provided.) This method of "sacrifice" was acceptable to the 
  referees when the work was eventually written up: A comparative 
  survey of the mast cells of the mammalian brain. Journal of 
  Anatomy 121, 303-311 (1976). The cat is acknowledged in a 
  footnote.

  Another free kind of animal is any small fish that you can catch
  with a little net. Slightly more expensive is a small goldfish from
  a pet shop. Little fishes have easily recognized intestines and
  livers, and are otherwise largely composed of muscle and associated
  connective tissues, and the blood in their veins has nucleated
  red cells. For the CNS of small fish (and small mammals too),
  I recommend decalcifying the skull or vertebral column after
  adequate fixation rather than trying to dissect out the brain
  or spinal cord either before or after fixing. 

                              John Kiernan
                              London, Canada.
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On Sat, 5 Aug 2000, Amos Brooks wrote:
> Don't forget if it is really warn -n- fresh to save the large bits fer the
> stew pot!
 > RSRICHMOND@aol.com wrote:
> > Now this is the kind of thing we really get into in east Tennessee. - I'd
> > suggest rubber gloves (preferably utility gloves, like Playtex) and a jar of
> > fixative right along with you. Would also suggest not messing with rabbits,
> > because of the hazard of tularemia, and watch for ticks.
> > Most important, don't get run over by a tractor-trailer!
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