In 1888 Hopkins appointed William Osler to be the university’s first physician-in-chief and professor of medicine. He is of interest to us because he wrote, “The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from other animals.”
Well, at least Osler got it right when it comes to identifying humans as other animals. But he gets it wrong about taking medicine.
On June 12 The Washington Post picked up on the scientific journal Animal Behaviour. It reports on research with sheep at Utah State University in which their feed was spiked with different substances to induce different kinds of discomfort. The research showed that the sheep preferred food with the proper antidote to correct the affliction they had been given. Furthermore! Five months later the sheep made the right decision again!
Isn’t animal research clever? If they had asked me I would have told them that the cat who rules our home, Emmy, picks certain plants in the garden to eat to induce vomiting. But we were never asked. Sob. Sob.
