German animal brain teaching aid.

Teaching Aid: Brains-on-Sticks

Buffalo, New York

Of the many fascinating exhibits at The Brain Museum, it was hard to walk away from the Animal Brains-on-Sticks. It's an old anatomical teaching aid from Germany, displaying replica brains from eight different animals. To our pop-culture-impaired eyes they look like face-hugger aliens, or some long forgotten power mutant collectible.

Dr. Chris Cohan, curator of the Brain Museum.

Each brain is mounted on a wooden handle that can be lifted off the display base. Labeled "Modelle von Wirbeltier-Gehirnen" ("Models of vertebrate brains"), the apparatus was a collaboration between a Professor Dr. R. Wiedersheim and a Freidrich Ziegler in Freiburg, who must have known their way around a critter's skull.

The brain replicas are labeled in Latin: "Columba domestica" (pigeon), Lepus cuniculus (hare), etc.

When we visited, the Animal Brains-on-Sticks were sitting atop a lab counter, probably destined to be dusted and tucked into a display case some day.