The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-09-05
SECRET OF IMMORTAL LIFE
DIR. ALEXIS CARRELL COMES
NEARER TO SOLVING 1T.
Scientist Succeeds in Producing Cells
in Removed Tissues. Research
Close to Greater Discovery.


NEW YORK.-The earlier expert
ments upon the preservation of life
in animal tissues after removal from
! the gross organism have set DR..
Alexis Carrel at the Rockefeller In
stitute at the threshold of yet more
important discovery. These expert
ments established the facts that not
only could connective tissue be pre-
served permanently in a condition OF
active life, but that under certain
easily controlled conditions growth
could take place.
May Postpone Old Age.
In DR.. CarreIls laboratory cells
have been proliferating rapidly for
more than sixteen months after
their removal from the organism
of which they had formed a part.
Hitherto all tissue when removed
from the animal organism has been
meat; these researches establish the
fact that such tissue may continue
to grow Indefinitely.
AS this discovery became more ia
miliar to the investigator it was dis
covered that a constant relaxation
existed between the rate of growth
of the cell and the composition of
the medium in which it is preserved.
This fact, DR.. Carroll now announces
in the Journal of Experimental Med
icine, indicated that certain cell phe-
nomena of the higher animals, such
as multiplication, growth and senil-
ity, might now be investigated profit
ably. At first blocked by lack Of
proper method this investigation has
now become possible through the
discovery of a technique which per-
mits strains of connective tissue to
multiply indefinitely in the test
tubes, like microorganisms.
A distinct character Of the prog
ress reports which Dr. Carrel pre-
sents is simplicity and directness.
How each successive item of this in
vestigation may be adjusted to the
scheme of life in general is nowhere
set forth; it is left entirely to infer
ence; it is entirely matter of inter
probation of some obscure hint.
In the report now issued it may
be taken that the mention of senility
is intended to foreshadow an ulti-
mate object of this line of profound
study. That would seem to mean
that this research is advancing to-
ward the discovery of some means
of postponing the approach of old
age.
But Dr.. Carrel says nothing of the
sort He confines himself to a rigid
ly detailed statement of this series of
experiments. He describes in terms
of absolute accuracy the source of
the cells upon which his research
has been based he describes the
medium in which they have been pre-
served; he gives working directions
which will enable other students to
repeat the treatment to which the
specimens have been subjected. All
this detail is very recondite; it is
information which will interest only
those students of higher physiology
who may seek to check this expert
ment control tests performed indie
pendently.
The results of this series of re-
searches have the interest that they
prove conclusively that DR.. Carrel
has taken one more step toward the
goal of his inquiry. His early re-
ports established the sufficiently
startling fact that the death of the
gross organism by no means entail
ed the simultaneous death of the
component parts. In effect his ear
lier conclusion was that the animal
might die, but the cells of which the
animal was composed died in a Sec
Ondary sense only by the failure to
| supply the culture medium which
supported their individual life. The
first conclusion reached was the
proof of life after death, the sur
vival of the cell.
The later investigation has estab-
lished knowledge of the character
istics of the growth of the connective
the indefinite proliferation of a
tissue. This has led to a new result,
strain of connective tissue cells out
side Of the organism The strain of
} connective tissue originally obtained
from fragment of chicken embryo
heart, which had been pulsating in
/ the test tube for 104 days, was still
actively alive after sixteen months
of independent life and more than
/ 100 passages. The rate of prolifera-
/ tion of the connective tissues six
teen months old eQualed and even
exceeded that of fresh connective It's
sue taken from an eight-day-old
embryo
at appears, therefore" DR.. Car
rel reports in summation, that time
has no effect on the tissues isolated
from the organism and preserved by
means of the technique described
During the sixteenth month of life
in vitro the cells increased rapidly
in number and were able in a short
time to produce a large quantity Of
new tissue. This fact, therefore