Vingodo
In the history of human pregnancy testing, countless small animals have sacrificed one after another. / Sad Frog
Before the invention of the pregnancy test stick, human beings scratched their heads for the great cause of "pregnancy test".
In China, our profound Chinese medicine has a "pulse test pregnancy method", which is convenient and efficient - the old Chinese medicine doctor only needs to put 4 fingers on the wrist of a woman, and in just a few seconds, there is an answer: "Madam, there is joy." "And the accuracy rate is as high as 80%.
But in most parts of the world, pregnancy tests can only be done by chance.
In just a few seconds, there was an answer: "Madam, there is joy." "/Video screenshot
In ancient Greece, women would stuff onions into their private parts to determine if they were pregnant. After the stuffing, the girls will sleep first, and when they wake up the next day, if the breath is strong and pungent, it means that they are not pregnant; if the breath is fresh and "harmless", it means that they are pregnant.
The ancient Greeks explained this: the inside of the human body is like a vertical pipe, if you are pregnant with a baby, the "pipe" will be blocked, then the smell of onions will naturally not be transmitted.
Unsurprisingly, this test method can not detect those women who are really pregnant, but many people with bad stomach.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, ancient Egypt (about 3500 years ago), their pregnancy test also required "wasting" food.
Women suspected of being pregnant will pour their urine on the wheat, and if the wheat sprouts, it means that new life is growing in their stomachs; if the wheat does not sprout, it means that there is nothing in their stomachs. What is even more peculiar about this trick is that it claims to be able to identify the sex of the fetus: when the barley germinates, it means that it is a boy; when the wheat sprouts, it means that it is a girl.
Male or female? Pee a wheat to know. /Wikipedia
However, the ancient Egyptians are really not "outrageous". In fact, it was the ancient Egyptians who pioneered the astonishing "urine measurement method" and made women on the European continent later refer to urine as "Piss Prophets".
Since the Middle Ages, the concept of "pee prophet" has become popular. Pregnancy tests around urine are varied. For example, women will soak the ribbon into their own urine, then fish it out, dry it, and light it, and judge whether they are pregnant by observing the color of the flame and smoke when the ribbon burns.
In 1522, an article on the "urine observation method" wrote the "urine test" quite poetically: "The urine of pregnant women is clear light lemon yellow, and it is a little biased towards beige, and the surface seems to be covered with a layer of clouds." "If the color is not easy to observe, don't worry, you can also mix urine with mellow wine to observe the color."
At that time, people had already learned some magic in the urine, and alcohol would react with some proteins in the urine of pregnant women, but what protein it was and how it reacted could not be said at that time.
Medieval urine color observation disk. /Wikipedia
By the 20th century, the level of human medicine had advanced by leaps and bounds. Hormone research is all the rage, and the theoretical rationale behind the "urine test" has also begun to emerge.
In 1927, two German physicians, Selmar Aschheim and Bernhard Zondek, discovered that when the urine of pregnant women was injected into female mice that were not yet sexually mature, the mice's ovaries would begin to develop, and congestion and luteum would appear.
Researchers believe that the female pituitary gland secretes a hormone in large quantities after pregnancy, and this hormone is the core cause of sexual maturity in mice.
Later, scientists discovered that this hormone is the human chorionic gonadotropin hCG, a glycoprotein hormone secreted by the trophoblast cells of the placenta. Back to the ancient Egyptian "urine wheat" pregnancy test, the principle behind it is also related to hCG, a 1967 experiment showed that the accuracy of the urine wheat pregnancy test can be as high as 70%.
Due to the extremely high success rate of the mouse pregnancy test, since then, the medical community has chosen the initials of the surnames of two scientists, and the "AZ pregnancy test method" has been born.
But the mouse pregnancy test is difficult to put on the market because its process is too tossed. Each pregnancy test not only requires killing 5 mice (the guinea pigs in the laboratory are not inexhaustible and inexhaustible), but also a week of waiting time for results.
Wait for the rabbit to be dissected. /Daily Mail chart
In order to shorten the pregnancy test cycle, two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania introduced rabbits to "pregnancy tests" (at that time, rabbits were second only to mice). As a result, the cute rabbits in the laboratory have to wait in line to inject pregnant women's urine.
What is even more tragic is that after the rabbits receive injections, they must be dissected and removed from the ovaries, "glorious sacrifice".
Thus, "The rabbit died!" became a slang expression for "female pregnant." It's just that the truth is that all rabbits used for pregnancy tests will die, not only the test rabbit for pregnant women.
To this day, we still see the heroine in the American drama using "the rabbit is dead" to refer to "I am pregnant". / Stills from The Big Bang Theory
In the United States, a pregnancy clinic can kill 6,000 furry rabbits a year for pregnancy tests. In addition, rabbit testing is not as efficient. Compared to the mouse test, the rabbit test was only 1 day faster on the cycle. Moreover, the cost of rabbits is relatively high, and for ordinary customers, the price of a pregnancy test is really expensive.
However, humans can always think of other "back pot men" unexpectedly.
In 1927, a man named Lancelot Lancelot Hogben's British scientist set foot on the African continent, where he began his own hormone research project. Soon, Hoggburn discovered that the South African clawed frog was ideal for use as experimental subjects.
In 1930, Hoggburn injected the African clawed frog with an extract of the pituitary gland, and after the clawed frog was stimulated, it began to ovulate wildly. The experiment gave Hogburn an inspiration, and soon after, Hogburn tried to inject pregnant women's urine under the skin of the clawed frog and found that the clawed frog began to lay eggs after 6-12 hours, which was too efficient and cheaper than the rabbit test (everywhere in the rainforest).
As the most efficient "pregnancy test stick" for human beings in the 20th century, the African clawed frog has endured the unspeakable pain of life. / Historical Archives of National Museum of Health & Medicine
In addition, the ovulation of amphibians is easier to observe, so rabbits withdraw from the historical stage of pregnancy tests, and claw frogs play.
As the most efficient "pregnancy test stick" for human beings in the 20th century, the African clawed frog has endured the unspeakable pain of life.
Since 1993, a large number of amphibians have begun to die mysteriously worldwide. After a series of tracking, scientists found that the "chytrid plague" in the amphibian kingdom was caused by the African clawed frog, that is, the pregnancy test frog that served humans.
Fortunately, with the popularity of home pregnancy test sticks, these innocent frogs finally escaped the disaster and returned to nature from the laboratory.
Resources:
[1] The History of The Picking of All Things | Why did humans go extinct in the human pregnancy test?
[2] SEM Tech Story | Because of the pregnancy test used by frogs, humans may have indirectly eliminated nearly a hundred species of amphibians
[3] NetEase Science Man | In the case of pregnancy tests, frogs have been more accurate than gynecologists
[4] Harvard University | Pee is for Pregnant: The history and science of urine-based pregnancy tests