Today in class I dissected a frog. It was quite an experience. First, the teacher explained how to cut the suckers open, and then he opened up the bucket of frogs and distributed them, along with a set of tools. Among the tools were a scalpel, scissors, forceps, pins, and a tray.

The frog was placed on the tray, on its back. I took the scalpel and made a long, straight cut vertically from the underside of the head down to the crotch. Next I made horizontal cuts at shoulder level, and at the waist, so as to form two flaps of skin that could be pulled back. I pinned back the skin, this exposed the pink muscle. There was a blue vein running vertically along the frog's body. I used this as a guide for cutting away the muscle. I poked into the muscle about 4 millimeters, being careful not to pierce any of the internal organs, and cut along the vein. There was some resistance from the bones in the ribcage. Now I repeated the process of making horizontal cuts so that I could pull the muscle out of the way.

After pinning back the muscle, I was delighted by all the interesting parts in the chest cavity. The first part I noticed was a large grey organ in three lobes. This was the liver. Next to it was a pink sac that measured about 3 cm long and 7 mm wide. This was the stomach. I cut out the liver to expose the heart. It was about 1 cm by 1 cm.

Unfortunately, at this point the bell rang and I had to leave. I removed the pins, and picked my new friend up by the leg and threw him out.