Currently voted the best answer. Vote for this answer. Batters. Unfortunately, it has happened. In 1920, Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a pitched ball from Carl Mays. He was struck with a pitch by Carl Mays on August 16, 1920, in a game against the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds.
Animals are sometimes used in the testing of drugs, vaccines and other biologics, and medical devices, mainly to determine the safety of the medical product. For drugs and biologics, the focus of animal testing is on the drugâs nature, chemistry, and effects (pharmacology) and on its potential damage to the body (toxicology).
The use of rats in laboratories has roots deep in history, stretching back several hundred years. Rats are a natural choice for laboratory testing for several reasons: Rats have also co-evolved with humans for millions of years. They eat most of the same foods as we do and live in all of the same places. They can get many of the same diseases as we do. Biologically, they're very similar to us, which makes results from their tests transfer so nearly to us. As for why the rats are white, that's mostly coincidental. Rats used in experiments are specifically bred for that purpose. The rats used in labs have been carefully in-bred over many, many generations to become essentially genetically identical -- so much so that they're practically clones of each other.