Very interesting to discover here that the
Murine Model of MS--MMMS dates back to at least the early 1600's.*
I think we can be fairly certain that the origin was Italian. Had it been uncovered by an Anglo-Saxon scientist, it is doubtful that it would have been announced in song. But an Italian scientist of that era? Probably quite likely since it would be the perfect thing to do between a major medical discovery and say painting a chapel in the Vatican.
So let's break this down:
Three blind mice.
Optic neuritis, no doubt. And we can probably safely assume that they were double blind, n=3.
See how they run
Well, we know how they run: Dragging a foot, stumbling, not very fast or far. But why go into these details in announcing your discovery of a Murine Model of MS?
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Okay. Looks like a lot of poetic license here. The lab technician, not the farmer's wife, severed their internal jugular veins, not cut off their tails with a carving knife, but anyone who has ever read the results of a pharmaceutical clinical trial will understand that authors take considerable poetic license in reporting their findings. Same here.
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?
The answer is not until another Italian scientist applied his mind to the problem some 400 years later.
* Link is just a place-holder for a real report in the future. :>)