The Hogben Test: When Frogs Predicted BirthHospitals kept live animals to detect early motherhood

From the show

The Secret Life of Objects

For decades, the most reliable way to confirm a pregnancy involved injecting urine into a live African clawed frog. Zoologist Lancelot Hogben discovered that specific hormones triggered these amphibians to lay eggs within hours, turning them into essential biological indicators. This practice led to hospital froggeries but inadvertently caused a global ecological crisis by spreading a deadly fungus to native wildlife.