In a message dated 9/30/97 12:48:53 AM, Sharon Horowitz wrote:

<<Has anyone ever tried leaving a plastinated organ out for people to touch?
I don't need any dreadful predictions...just actual experience.
>>

Hi Sharon!

We had a goat stomach that was plastinated.  We did not have a lot of people
handling it, mostly because we were afraid of it tearing (there were a
few thin spots on it.  We've since given it back to the research dept. at
their request.  Other than the risk of tearing, which I think might have been
unique to this specimen and the thickness of certain parts of the organ, it
looked like it would have been pretty durable.  Other organs without the
special twists and turns of a ruminating stomach might work pretty good.

Richard Efthim
Naturalist Center
Smithsonian Institution
741 Miller Dr. SE, Suite G-2
Leesburg, Virginia 20175
(800)729-7725