On June 5, 1925, Sir John Bland-Sutton delivered a fascinating lecture titled "The Psychology of Animals Swallowed Alive" to the Royal College of Surgeons, of which he was president. Over at our Submitterator, Dani points us to a transcript of the presentation that ran in the British Medical Journal. It's a lot to digest — rich with witty tales of frogs, fish, snakes, and, of course, whales — and filled with some fantastic quotes. Here are a few:
"Many discoveries and observations made by naturalists are of little interest to the public, but aniimal psychology and vagaries of the human minid are interesting to all."
"When sitting in quiet contemplation digesting after dinner, with beneficient microbes hard at work within me, I sometimes wonder if animals who swallow their pray alive are worried by the acrobatic efforts of victims trying to escape."
"A live fish in an animal's stomach must cause some discomfort."
"Meditations on the psychology of the swallowed suggest that the animal world may be divided into swallowers and the swallowed."
"The Psychology of Animals Swallowed Alive"
