What is a summary of chapter 9 in Stiff?

In chapter 9 of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, author Mary Roach focuses on the use of heads as a topic of study in the scientific world and, particularly, on experimentation on mammalian heads post-decapitation and attempts at head transplants. Roach offers grizzly examples of experiments that were performed on decapitated heads in an effort to learn if sensation and consciousness could remain in the mind of someone in the seconds or moments following decapitation. Roach provides the example of the observational experiments done on decapitated heads following execution by guillotine in France in the 1850s and early 1900s. She also details the ghastly experiments done on severed animal heads in 1887, wherein researchers such as Hayem and Barrier purposely beheaded dogs in order to test for consciousness and attempted to revive the brain through blood perfusion. The chapter concludes with the work of scientists researching and attempting head transplants, such as the experiments of American neuroscientist Robert White, who experimented with head transplants on rhesus monkeys in the 1960s and 1970s. The chapter certainly raises questions about the ethical limitations of this field of study.

In the ninth chapter of her novel, Mary Roach provides an overview of the ways in which heads, both human and animal, have been used in scientific experiments throughout history. Particular emphasis is placed upon decapitation: namely, how long the head, once severed from the body, retains thoughts, feelings, and other aspects of the decedent’s self. Throughout the chapter, Roach provides notable historical examples, such as Brown-Séquard’s 1857 experiment that indicated the presence of brain activity in a dog eight minutes after its head had been severed from its body, and Jean-Baptiste Vincent Laborde’s experiments with the heads of guillotined criminals. She also explores how the work of these and other researchers eventually raised questions in the medical and scientific communities about the possibility of successful head transplantation, citing the work of Guthrie and Carrel in 1908, Demikhov’s 1954 experiments with canine subjects, and tests performed on monkeys over the next two decades by neurosurgeon Robert White. Roach also touches on the ethical questions raised by human head/brain transplantation, as well as donor and cost considerations.