Lavoisier used a calorimeter to measure heat production as a result of respiration in a guinea pig.

The guinea pig in the center of the chamber produced heat which melted the ice.

Like its cousin the guinea pig, the capybara does not have the capacity to synthesize vitamin C, and capybaras not supplemented with vitamin C in captivity have been reported to develop gum disease as a sign of scurvy.

Cruz's next film was the kid-friendly G-Force voicing a guinea pig spy named Juarez.

Cultivation of plants such as corn and cotton ( Gossypium barbadense ) began, as well as the domestication of animals such as the wild ancestors of the llama, the alpaca and the guinea pig.

Dally had made himself an enthusiastic human guinea pig for the fluoroscopy project and in the process been exposed to a poisonous dose of radiation.

Harold Raymond, at his publisher Chatto and Windus, said of the manuscript, “ You are the most articulate guinea pig that any scientist could hope to engage .” The title was taken from William Blake's poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

* Abyssinian, a breed of guinea pig

A recent University of Pennsylvania study calculated the approximate bandwidth of human retinas is 8. 75 megabits per second, whereas guinea pig retinas transfer at 875 kilobits.

The LD50 of dioxin also varies wildly between species with the most notable disparity being between the ostensibly similar species of hamster and guinea pig.

GM continued to use Oldsmobile sporadically to showcase futuristic designs and as a " guinea pig " for testing new technology, with Oldsmobile offering the Toronado Trofeo, which included a visual instrument system with a calendar, datebook, and climate controls.

The guinea pig ( Cavia porcellus ), also called the cavy, is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia.

The guinea pig plays an important role in the folk culture of many Indigenous South American groups, especially as a food source, but also in folk medicine and in community religious ceremonies.

In Western societies, the guinea pig has enjoyed widespread popularity as a household pet since its introduction by European traders in the 16th century.

Their docile nature, their responsiveness to handling and feeding, and the relative ease of caring for them, continue to make the guinea pig a popular pet.

Organizations devoted to competitive breeding of guinea pigs have been formed worldwide, and many specialized breeds of guinea pig, with varying coat colors and compositions, are cultivated by breeders.

The animals were frequently used as a model organism in the 19th and 20th centuries, resulting in the epithet " guinea pig " for a test subject, but have since been largely replaced by other rodents such as mice and rats.

The common guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean region of South America ( present-day the southern part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia ), some thousands of years after the domestication of the South American camelids.

The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the guinea pig in their art.

The earliest known written account of the guinea pig dates from 1547, in a description of the animal from Santo Domingo ; because cavies are not native to Hispaniola, it was earlier believed that the animal was likely introduced there by Spanish travelers.

The guinea pig was first described in the West in 1554 by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner.

Ironically, breeders tend to use the more formal " cavy " to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts it is far more commonly referred to by the more colloquial " guinea pig ".

The French term is Cochon d ' Inde ( Indian pig ) or cobaye ; the Dutch call it Guinees biggetje ( Guinean piglet ) or cavia ( while in some Dutch dialects it is called Spaanse rat ); and in Portuguese the guinea pig is variously referred to as cobaia, from the Tupi word via its Latinization, or as porquinho da Índia ( little Indian pig ).

A common misconception is that they were so named because they were sold for the price of a guinea coin ; this hypothesis is untenable, because the guinea was first struck in England in 1663, and William Harvey used the term " Ginny-pig " as early as 1653.

In the Golden Hamster Saga books, there are two guinea pigs named Enrico and Caruso who are modern-day thespians ( named after Enrico Caruso ) who serve as secondary characters, and often irritate the main character, Freddy Auratus who strongly dislikes their acting antics.

The races were named according to their original prize funds ( a guinea amounted to 21 shillings, or £ 1. 05 ).

A commonly held but incorrect explanation is that it was named " Guinea " to deride Loyalists who quartered Hessian mercenaries during the American Revolutionary War, soldiers who were paid one guinea per day.

The president explains that to develop a vaccine for the Sinovirus ( and protect America from biological weapons containing the Sinovirus ) the scientists had to create a genetically engineered human, a boy named Kevin, who's blood could be used to produce antibodies, and the prisoners being held at Area 7 are used as guinea pigs to test the vaccine.

They were named according to their original prize funds ( a guinea amounted to 21 shillings, or £ 1. 05 ).

Theodore Roosevelt owned a guinea pig named Fighting Bob Evans.

There are several theories as to its development, and it is named for the Greek mythology figure Asclepius, who was said to have possessed healing power, although it has been claimed to have origins from other sources, including a biblical story from Numbers and as a representation of the drawing out of a guinea worm.

He has a pet guinea pig which he rescued from Mrs. Olsen's classroom and named it " Lyle " after Lyle Lovett.

After the death of his owner Mr. Wing ( Keye Luke ), the mogwai Gizmo ( voiced by Howie Mandel ) becomes the guinea pig of the mad scientists working at Clamp Enterprises, an automatic state-of-the-art office building in Manhattan, run by the eccentric billionaire Daniel Clamp ( John Glover ).

Lavoisier used this measurement to estimate the heat produced by the guinea pig's metabolism.

Hamsters, guinea pigs and chinchillas eat their own droppings, which are thought to be a source of vitamins B and K, produced by bacteria in the gut.

Rabbits as pets can find their companionship with a variety of creatures, including humans, other rabbits, birds, chinchillas, guinea pigs, and sometimes even cats and dogs ( however they require supervision when with dogs and cats, as they might be preyed upon or attacked by these animals ).

Foods such as rice, sorghum ( known by some Europeans as " guinea corn "), and okra — all common elements of West African cuisine — were introduced to the Americas as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

However, a lot of programs seek to combine both approaches ; for instance, guinea worm eradication, a single-disease international program currently run by the Carter Center has involved the training of many local volunteers, boosting bottom-up capacity, as have international programs for hygiene, sanitation, and access to primary health-care.

In the 19th century, varying aconitum alkaloids from a variety of species were standardized by testing with guinea pigs.

Effects of different preparations were standardized by testing on guinea pigs.

The Japanese word for guinea pig is " モルモット "( morumotto ), which derives from the name of another mountain-dwelling rodent, the marmot ; this is what guinea pigs were called by the Dutch traders who first brought them to Nagasaki in 1843.

Some species of cavy identified in the 20th century, such as Cavia anolaimae and Cavia guianae, may be domestic guinea pigs that have become feral by reintroduction into the wild.

Domestic guinea pigs have developed a different biological rhythm from their wild counterparts, and have longer periods of activity followed by short periods of sleep in between.

Most grass-eating mammals are quite large and have a long digestive tract ; while guinea pigs have much longer colons than most rodents, they must also supplement their diet by coprophagy, the eating of their own feces.

Common ailments in domestic guinea pigs include respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, scurvy ( vitamin C deficiency, typically characterized by sluggishness ), abscesses due to infection ( often in the neck, due to hay embedded in the throat, or from external scratches ), and infections by lice, mites, or fungus.

Treatment of disease is made more difficult by the extreme sensitivity guinea pigs have to most antibiotics, including penicillin, which kill off the intestinal flora and quickly bring on episodes of diarrhea and in some cases, death.

Some noted appearances of the animal in literature include the short story Pigs Is Pigs by Ellis Parker Butler is a tale of bureaucratic incompetence ; two guinea pigs held at a train station breed unchecked while humans argue as to whether they are " pigs " for the purpose of determining freight charges.

The Fairy Caravan, a novel by Beatrix Potter, and Michael Bond's Olga da Polga series for children, both feature guinea pigs as the central protagonist.