1887 -- French scientists attach the heads of executed prisoners fresh from the guillotine onto the bodies of large dogs. The heads do not respond.
1912 -- Russian scientists kept a severed dog
head alive for several hours with an artificial circulation machine. In
later years, Russian scientist Fladimir Demikhov transplanted the front
half of one dog
onto the body of a German shepherd, a feat that
Dr. White has called "beautiful, a tremendous accomplishment." The pain-crazed
dog halves kept attacking each other and had to be killed. Dr. White had
admitted doing many similar experiments (parabiosis).
1964 -- Dr. David Gilboe, University of Wisconsin, decapitated 15 dogs and kept the heads alive with mechanical pumps. By this time, Dr. White had removed the brains from many monkeys and kept them alive with machines. The brains exhibited electrical activity and absorbed oxygen and glucose, indicating they were alive. Dr. White claims there is no pain involved. Other medical experts have disagreed, since the pain and fear felt by the living brain can't be estimated, and the normal defense mechanism of "fainting" under stress by cutting the blood supply off is denied to the isolated brain by its attachment to circulating machines.
1965 -- Dr. White removed the brain of a dog and implanted it in the neck of another dog, where it remained alive for some period of time.
1970 -- Dr. White transplanted the entire head of one monkey onto the neck of another one, which lived for 24 hours.
1971 -- Dr. White begins to transplant the heads of monkeys onto the decapitated bodies of other monkeys, connecting the jugular and carotid arteries. The spinal cord cannot be connected, so the head and body are both paralyzed. The bodies/heads lived for up to two weeks.
1973 -- Dr. White drained the blood from a tiny monkey, refrigerated the head for an hour, then pumped the blood back in. According to medical expert Hans Reusch, this little creature existed in great pain afterward. Dr. White has said that the pain and suffering of lab animals used in experiments have no relevance.
1980 -- White's appearance on European TV, doing experiments on an injured, terrified, restrained small monkey causes an uproar among viewers.
1977,1984 -- Dr. White declares himself ready to transplant human heads.