Evening star., 1924-06-15
Early Stages Of Life
Studied at Laboratory

time you were six or seven weeks old
you were possessed of a tail. and in
the department of embryology there
are literally hundreds of preserved
embryos to prove the truth of that
statement To further shatter your
dignity, you will be shown samples
of later period proving that at a
certain age your great toe was placed
and shaped exactly like that of an
ape, no matter how little you may
like to believe it.
Perhaps the most startling Of all
the revelations the layman NAV find
in the department of embryology is
that he had many organs before he
had brain and yet had the ability
to control their action. Much effort
is now being spent to determine just
exactly when the brain assumes con-
troll of the lower portions of the body.
Although research along that line
has not been completed, there is evil
dence to indicate it does not take
place until some time after birth.
To perpetuate it's researches for
future students the department has
established a library of the human
ever, are actual cross-sections OF the
human body. indisputable records of
how the body and its organs form.
day by day, from as early as three
weeks after their origin up to the
time of the birth of the fully devel-
oped child. 1t is by far the largest
and most complete library of this
character in the world.
Thus the surgeon or the student
may go to the department at any
time, take from one of the many
shelves what has every appearance
of being an ordinary book, open it
and study on the glass slides inside
! the shape of any human organ. The
library is perhaps the most priceless
treasure in the entire department,
representing long years of work, and
is kept in fireproof room.
1t was while being shown through
this section that one visitor met an
old friend. The old friend was none
other than Pongo, the little orang-
]
dent of the Zoo Park here. Pongo
died last winter from ricketts, and his
body was sent to Baltimore TO be
studied by scientists. A cast of his
head was made by DR.. A. H. Schultz
as a permanent record preliminary TO
the dissection of the body. BY this
time every nerve and muscle in poor
old Pongo's body has been examined
microscopically and the results in
cluded in the notes of science.
There is yet another and highly
| important phase of the work OF the
department of embryology of the Car
negie Institution 1t concerns re-
searches into the formation ana ac-
ton of the living tissues, the bits OF
life which, pieced together, make the
whole of us. This study is being
carried on, not only through expert
ments on real living tissue, but also
through the medium of the camera
DR.. Warren H. Lewis has charge Of
that particular department, and he is
assisted in his work by his wife. Thus
far DR.. Lewis has carried on expert
ments chiefly with tissues of en-
bryo chicks, but has also devoted his
attention to mammalian tissues. in
GLIDING human lymph glands. the
cells of which seem to grow quite as
well under these conditions as in
their normal environment
DR.. George L. Streeter is director of
the department of embryology, hav-
ing succeeded the late Prof Frank
lin p Mall. who established the de-
partment in 1914, under the authori-
zation Of the board OF trustees cfl
the Carnegie Institution of Washing
ton.