How to Dissect a Frog

Ever find yourself one toad spleen short of the perfect potion? For all your stewing and brewing needs, here's a step-by-step guide to finding and removing your frog's liver. Or gallbladder. Or spleen.

While you are cutting, be careful not to press too hard. You don't want to ruin your pristine organ farm because spotted toads are hard to find in the city.

STEP 1: Slicing the lymph nodes.

Make one wide horizontal cut just beneath the frog's jaw line.

STEP 2: Probing past stomach muscles and bones.

Make one thin vertical cut from the throat to the groin.
Cut bones connected to shoulders.

STEP 3: Finding the organs.

Remove the frog's sternum (breastbone) and peel back its skin so you can get at the real goods-the organs.
If it' a female frog, you will need to remove the clusters of tiny black eggs in her abdomen.
After removing, you're in the clear to explore anything on the following list.

Now, here's what's what

HEART-This is located front and middle between the frog's small upper legs. The heart pumps blood to all of the other organs.

LIVER-It's brown and located directly below the heart. The liver may appear to come in many pieces, but each piece is a lobe of the whole organ. This is a popular potion ingredient and it's easy to see why: the liver produces chemicals that remove toxins from the frog's blood.

LUNGS-These are located on each side of outermost liver lobes and may initially appear to be part of the liver. Frogs breathe through their nostrils and lungs, but they also breath through their skin.

GALLBLADDER-This is a small, green organ located between two of the liver's lobes. The gallbladder secretes juices that help the frog digest its food. It tastes terrible.

STOMACH-This is a long, white sac. It's located behind and to the right of the liver when viewed from above. The stomach uses the gallbladder's juices to digest and store food eaten by the frog.

SMALL INTESTINES-These are coiled cords of tissue located in front of stomach and behind the liver. The small intestines turn food into nutrients and feed them into the bloodstream.

PANCREAS-White, thin tube connecting stomach and small intestines. As the gallbladder does with the stomach, the pancreas produces digestive enzymes for the small intestines to use.

SPLEEN-This organ is located beneath and to the left of the stomach when viewed from above. It's small and green like the gallbladder. The spleen stores healthy red blood cells and eliminates damaged cells.

KIDNEYS-These are located beneath all the rest of the organs, up against the back of the frog. They are usually a dark, purplish red. The kidneys filter chemicals out of the blood, producing urine.

Ignore the yellow, stringy fat bodies filling space between organs. Fat may have been important while the frog was alive, but it's probably not what you're looking for.