The American scientific community was shocked by the heinous crime committed at the University of Texas. Unidentified malefactors have stolen a hundred human brains stored in glass jars with formalin.
The collection of brains of Austin hospital patients has been collected since 1950, and several American universities applied for it at once, then the University of Texas managed to win. Now, after the scandal broke out, the fate of the remaining brains was in question.
According to The Atlantic, the collectible brains were kept on wooden shelves in a small room in the basement behind a glass door. The University made sure that dust and random visitors did not get into the storage. The jars contained fragments or whole brains dipped in formalin. Each specimen was labeled with a faded accessory number, the patient's illness and the date of death.
All donors who became them for the needs of science were patients at the Austin State Hospital. Men and women, whose brains ended up in banks in the basement of the university, went through all kinds of shocks in the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century, the publications writes, in particular, they participated in experiments on the use of occupational therapy and electroshock, they were actually cut off from the outside world and kept in isolation.
Photo: Global Look Press
A similar medical facility, we note, was described in the famous novel by Ken Kesey "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and shown in the Oscar-winning film of the same name. The collection was collected by a pathologist at Austin Hospital, a man named Coleman de Chenar. By the time of his death in 1985, about 200 samples had been collected. All brains belonged to patients with mental and neurological diseases.
In 1986, it became clear that the collection needed to find a new owner, because the pathologist was using formalin illegally, and the Austin hospital could not maintain the samples in the necessary condition. At that time, at least six leading US research centers claimed the brains, wishing to study the effect of diseases on the available samples.
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So, for example, Harvard wanted to expand its "brain bank", which at that time had about 1000 samples. But this university is only interested in the brains of schizophrenics. In 1987, the Houston Chronicle described the battle of scientists as a "battle for brains." As a result, the victory was won by the University of Texas.
Now the University of Texas is extremely restrained in commenting on the information about the disappearance of the collection. “We think someone might have stolen the brains, but we're not sure about that for sure,” says one of the curators of the repository, professor of psychology Tim Schallert. His colleague, Professor Lawrence Corman, suggested that the students might have borrowed their brains for a Halloween prank. And the media, in particular NBC News, believe that underground work may be carried out at the university to create zombies.
Photo: Reuters
In an official statement on behalf of the university, quoted by AP, it is said that a thorough investigation will be carried out in connection with the abduction. The University administration assures that the brains were treated with exceptional respect, and the data allowing the identification of donors was classified. Currently, the remaining 100 brains have been moved from storage to another room and prepared for magnetic resonance imaging.
We add, according to the Statesmen, the University of Texas also got the brain of Charles Whitman, who on August 1, 1966 barricaded himself at the very top of the 27-storey tower on the territory of the university and within half an hour killed 14 and wounded 32 people from a rifle with a telescopic sight, having previously shot his wife and mother.
Whitman earned the nickname The Texas Sniper and was shot and killed by the police during the arrest. Autopsy revealed a tumor in his brain that experts believe could have caused an emotional breakdown. Whitman's story led to the creation of special forces in the United States - SWAT.