Chet Fleming of St Louis, Missouri patented the “cabinet” in 1987 to keep severed heads alive. The device was meant for severed animal heads and provided physical and biochemical support for the head. It supplied the head with oxygenated blood and nutrients with tubes connecting to the arteries in the neck.
The blood circulated the brain and returned the deoxygenated blood through the veins back to the cabinet. The cabinet processed the blood by removing the carbon dioxide and replenishing the oxygen levels. The blood was then recycled to the tube connected to the artery again and the process continued.
The cabinet provided physical support for the head by means of a collar and pins around the neck. The spine could be connected to the head. The support provided to the severed head would prolong various natural metabolic activities in the head after it had been severed from the body.
It allowed various types of analyses to be performed on the head without being affected by various metabolites generated by digestive and other internal organs when such analyses were performed on intact animals.