The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

1 tween dead tissues and living. Aside from the fact of circulation, when shall we say l cadaveric change is sufficient to be de- nominated death? In man, or rather in | all the higher animals. life is only dis tinguished by it's manifestation. But in vegetables and lower animals we have latent life, as manifested in the seed. This latent life Is really state of chem ical indifference. Why, by analogy, is 1t not possible to produce this state of latent life, or chemical indifference, in | the tissues of higher animals?
 Tn my experiments to preserve arteries I found that desiccation would not do, but produced a state of absolute death. Then put the arteries in refrigerators and kept them inclosed in hermetieally sealed tubes, at temperature a little above freezing. I found that an artery could be kept alive for 60 days and sub stituted for the artery of living ami nal.
 T have replaced the abdominal arteries of cat with the carotid arteries of a dog. Once when I received human leg from a New York hospital I kept the arteries 24 days in a refrigerator and then put them into a dog"
 Continuing his story of this incident Dr, Carrel said the dog easily survived the operation and remained healthy. Some months later, Dr. Carrel again etherized the dog and reopened the leg. The human arteries In the dog were doing beautifully. If human arteries do we'll in a dog, may not canine arteries do equally well in man2 Dr. Carrel asked.
 '"The inference is inevitable" says the Times in commenting on the lecture, that herafter, in cases of fatal accident, the sou1d members and organs of vic tims may find resurrection by implanta- ton into the frames of living patients" !"
 Many New York physicians are con- fident that the day is not far off when the perfect organs of a man who in life had been free from disease might be kept in cold storage after his death and used to replace diseased organs in living men.
 'Dr. Carrels experiments also show more than the mere feasibility of substi- tuting sound for diseased organs in hu- man beings" said one surgeon ''Fhey point the way to new method of ascer- taining the causes of different hitherto undiagnosable diseases. As far back as year ago, in paper delivered before the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science. at Chicago, Dr. FleXner pointed out that it would soon re possible to take a vital organ, sub iect it, artificially, to the same condi- lions which occur in different illnesses, and, by observing the change the con-
 
 cally determine how the illness may be fought. The difficulty heretofore has al- ways been to find a suitable method of investigating the effect of different ill., nesses on various organs. By transplant ing an organ harmlessly from one body which has one set of conditions, into an other body, which has another set of con l oltions, this investigation can now be easi- ly and thoroughly carried on.'
 
 Mir. L. G. Powers, of the census bureau, has an interesting article in the American Journal of Sociology on the growth of | wealth in the United States. He esti- mates that in 1904 the wealth of the Unit ed States amounted to $107, 900 000,000. He computes that in 1900 it amounted to $SS, 00o,O 0OO; in 1890 to s650O0, D0,000 in 1870 to $24O0O,0O0O0 in 1860 to $16000 GOO, ,0O[ and in 1850 to only $7,000, ,000, 900. As to how much a change can have taken place in a little more than half century, MT. Powers declares that these immense additions to our national wealth bear wit ness to the activity of three very inn portant factors: the creation of new forms of wealth as the result of human la bor; the appreciation in value of all property as a result of the worldwide influence of the increased and increasing supply of gold and silver which began to be felt immediate tely after the discovery of gold in Australia and California about 1S50 and the rise in value of property in cities and towns due to the growth of population.
 1 In MT. Powers list of national pos l sessions $55,000, ,000,000, or more than one half of the aggregate, is accredited to real property and improvements taxed. The value of railroads and their equip ments is computed at upward of $11, 000, ,000, GOO, that of manufactured products at about $7,500, 00O 000, that of real prop erty and Improvements exempt from tax ation at nearly $7000, ,000,000 that of fur niture, carriages and kindred property at nearly $6, eco, ,OO0, ,000,OO0, that of live stock at $4.O00 O00,O0O, that of clothing and per sonal adornments at $2,500. 100000, that of street railways at some $2.000,000, 900, that of gold and silver coin and bullion at nearly s2,OO0, ,000,00O that of agricultural products at only a little short of s2 00O, ,0O0,OO0, that of shipping and canals at somewhat less than billion, and that of farm implements and machinery at about the same figure; that of telephone sys- tems at nearly $500, ,0oo ,O00 and that of privately owned central electrical light and power stations at rather more than $550O00,00O. The value of imperial mer- chandise and that of mining products is
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