Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-13
CUT UP. YET ALIVE.
Muscles and Hearts Alive Hours After
Being Cut from the Body.
RoSfo1 Journal

Boston Journal.
'.These mind curers, 1 see,e said an
eminent university profes sor, s1declare
that there is no life in any portion Of the
body. or at least that the vital. aIl-pOwer-
full motive power Of man exists somewhere
else than in his material self. Well, /
think there are a great many others as
ignorant as they are Of the real scientific
meaning Of life."
As the professor uttered these words he
glanced up from the table where he was
at work, and laying down the scalpel
among the other instruments which
adorned his well-equipped laboratory,
turned his bright, piercing eyes toward
his companion. The latter. Knowing full
well the reputation which the professor
has as deep student and learned physi-
olOgist, asked him to express more def
nitely his meaning. Like true Yankee.
the modern sage responded with a ques-
ton:
''What is the ordinary Christian belief
Of life:'' he asked.
"Why, that life means the existence Of
a SOUL" was the reply.
Yes, but we say ii means more than
that; il is material condition existing
IN the different organs Of the body. You
saw in the papers what DR.. Robert
Hughes, the eminent Englishman, re-
tOn-that growth BY assimilation and
reproduction Of kind are the two pro-
cesses characteristic of life;' that is ap-
preaching near the truth. But he did not
then state, what is perfectly true, that
the organs Of the body can be kept alive
even after the body has been cut up. Do
you know what the earliest beliefs Of life
were!"
mo, cannot say do"
Lofs Al.
certain definite vital spark in a man and
that when he died he breathed out, in his
last breath, that spark. Even to-day most
people seem to have almost the same be-
lief; they say when any one dies that he
expires (eX-pirO ri. e., breathes out.
The majority of people believe that there
is definite sOmething-an invisible, ex-
traneOus force in the body which makes
it alive, and that when that something
disappears life disappears with it."
''But they don't hold that opinion of
some animals, the worm for instance.
Any gardener viii say that if you divide
worm in two with spade the two parts
Will live as separate worms"
Exactly. That's just where their
practice seems to disagree with their the
DRY. You ask him how it is possible to
cut the vital principle in two and he can't
answer you. Speaking of dividing the
worm, however, reminds me of other ami
mails which have been similarly treated
and have lived. In 1740 a well-known
able recorded in his memoirs that he had
taken fresh water polyps, cut them into
three or four pieces and each piece had
lived. Goss, the English naturalist, had
a cave, the sides OF which were covered
with sea-anemone. The attraction brought
so many visitors to his grounds that he
resolved to destroy it. Accordingly he
q
the residue which unaYoidably remained,
as many sea-anemOne as before repro
duced themselves. You see. then, that
one of two things is true; either the life
principle of an animal can be divided or
else there must be a number of yitalities
in such animals, all independent OF each
other"
THAT may all be true of these lower
animals, but"
"BUt, you think the higher animals
have life principle which can't be di-
yided, is that it? Now let me show you
how our spade, science, VIII cut up ami
mails, as the gardener does the worm,''
and the professor daTkened the room,
turned up the lights of his stereOpticon,
and then taking the muscle of a frog,
which had been previously cut out, showed
on the large white screen the muscles in
action just as they are when in the body.
smile of pleasure his companions sur
prised look, ''this muscle could easily be
kept alive ten or twelve hours, even
twenty hours, if blood could be kept flow
ing through it in large quantities. / am
sorry to say though" and the enthusiastic
scientist heaVed a sad little sigh, "we'Ye
never been able yet to keep the muscles
alive indefinitely. l have kept life in the
heart of frog for foTty-eight hours, and
I'll show you a live heart Of a turtle which
was cut out some time ago."
The heart was shown, still keeping up
its beating, shortening and thickening
itself as regularly and as perfectly as il
in the body. AS long as fresh blood was
supplied the heart lived.
'PrOfessor," queried his companion,
''why could not the human body be kept
alive artiicially by means of a continuous
supply OF fresh blood?v
''Why not, indeed?' responded the eX-
perimenter; shut, you understand. we do
not pretend that this is the soul life; it is
only the real, scientinc life. But why.
indeed. after the soul has fed, could not
a body be kept alive, performing all its
functions. only without moral guiding
power? That is a question for time to
determine. Life really consists in its
spontaneity, its ability to move and to
nourish itself when fed, and its being af-
fected by external objects, such as prick
or a shock. If the heart, cut out, exhib-
its all these functions, ought we not to say
that it is alive? Modern physiology de-
elares that living body can be separated
into as many living parts as there are
organs. Even the tissues, in some cases,
that make up these organs, particles one
twO-thousandths Of an inch in diameter,
show all the symptoms Of a living body.
/ viii tell you, my friend, just what we
mean when we say anything is alive. AS
far as we know, all matter which exhibits
life will break up into constituents, each
having a fundamental vital condition.
Everything that lives and moves contains
prOtOplasm, and this protOplasm has the
power of building up its own substance
from other materials. This is life. Any.
thing which is selt-renewing is alive.
Anything which cannot do that is dead
Such, at least, is the scientific and real
definition of life, though it may not be the
metaphysical one."