The New York herald., 1921-04-24
CHICKENS HEART
I. GROWS FOR FILMS
DR.. Carrel Shows Swift De-
yelopment of Cells From
Fragment of Embryo.
/ SURVIVES OPERATIONS
Mass of Matter Has Been BIZ
sected 1.500 Times, but
Continues to Thrive.
\ NO LIMIT ON THE SIZE
Might Have Reached Proper
4 tions of the Earth if Knife
/ Had Not Been Used.
no LIMIT ON THE SIZE

Special Despatch 10 THE New YoRK HERALD.
PHILADELPHIA April pa doctor
and two nurses look after the chicken
heart which Dr. Alexis Carrel, famous
scientist. has growing at the Rookie
feller Institute in New York.
DR.. Carrel was present to-day ut the
meeting Of the American Philosophical
Society. bringing with him motion pic
lures of the now famous heart, which
is not a heart at all but the cell pro-
liberation from a small fragment re-
moved from the heart OF a chicken
embryo in 1912. DR.. Carrel was ac-
companied by Alessandro Fabbri, who
made the picture. and DR.. A. II. Ebel-
ing. also Of the institute.
The motion pictures showed an actual
pulsating chickens heart, caused to beat
after the chicken was dead, and micro
scopic movies showing the, growth of the
heart tissue preserved in DR. CareFs
laboratory.
1t was related BY Mr.. Fabbri that in
finite pains are required to assure the
continued growth OF the cells. The
nurses and doctors are in attendance
every time it is removed from its incu-
bator. where It is kept at the exact tenn
perature of 103 degrees
Every forty-eight hours the cell mass
must be removed from the growing me-
dium in which it is kept and surgical
operation performed on It.
To-
In the forty-eight hours the heart has
grown to twise the size it was. With the
whiteclad nurses in attendance. the sur
geon with his rubber gloved fingers and
sterilized instruments cuts it in two, sew
/ ering the new cell from the old. Then
the new cells are put back into fresh
4 growing medium ana the heart is put
away for another forty-eight hours in its
incubator.
The heart, originally a small particle
\ OF tissue, has grown to a large cell mass,
bearing no resemblance TO a heart If
II were permitted 10 grow indefinitely,
DR.. Carrel says. without the daily cut
ting off the old cell growth. it would
have generated a sufficient number Of
cells 10 form a ball larger than the
earth. The present heart" is the 1.J00th
generation" counting each dissection as
one That Is to say. it has been cut in
half 1900 times. and. unless something
happens to kill it. will be susceptible OF
almost indefinite growth and dissection !;
that Is. unless one OF the developments
or the next few years be the knowledge
that there is term to the life and vigor
Of cell proliferation, as cell growth Is
called.
The scientists present at the demon
stration marvelled at the strange sight
OF tissue cells under a microscope.
visIbly growing as they watched the
enormously magnihed picture thrown on
the screen.
Beating Heart Is shown.
Mr.. Fabbri. in starting the motion
pictures. remarked smlingly that nc
would hate TO say how many tissue
cultures he had murdered" Dr. Ger
rel explained later that strong hight
has a harmful and sometimes q Kill
Ing effect on the tissue growth. There.
fore the pictures were made from The
older cells. cue or from the new growth.
SIX reels were shown. the first tha.
or the beating chicken heart, from n
fowl dead five days. II have had that
beat for 10i days" explained Or. CarreL
The second reel showed the tissue "ells
In the mass pushing out now growtbs:
the third isolated moving groups OF
cells. the fourth. tho growing tissue
brought out strongly under reflected
light: the firth, the movement ~ the
protoplasm IN a living cell. hugely
nia gnlfied. III couryc, and the sixth. tho
dying tissue as IL gradually dsnte-
grated and disappeared.