Evening star., 1938-07-03
L|NDBERGH WORK
MAY Be EPOCHAL
Mystery Man of Science
May Open New Roads
to Human Health.
BY JOHN LEAR,
Associated Press Stan Writer.

BY JOHN LEAR.
Associated Press Stan Writer.
NEW YORK. July 2.-Col. Charles
A. Lindbergh has become the mystery
man of science.
From q curly haired boy whom mil
lions knew for his flight alone across
the Atlantic, he has retreated deeper
and deeper into the laboratory.
The work he is doing with the me
ehanical heart" he invented may
change the whole course OF medical
history. yet the secrecy around him
grows as he progresses.
His beginnings as scientist were
abScured in maze of black rooms
strung across the top floor Of the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re-
search on Manhattan 1sland-the
workshop of DR.. Alexis Carrel, the
Nobel prize winner.
The few who were permitted to
climb the winding stair into the dust
free, germ-free darkness were warned
not to speak about him. No name
was signed to his first published re-
port on his robot" heart. Plain &C.
A. Lindbergh." with no identification,
was the signature on the second.
In the time that has passed since
then he apparently has discussed his
plans with no one save DR.. Carrel.
Further and further he withdrew I'M
til now he sits, alone with his family,
on dot Of land cut off on all sides
by the sea. voluntary exile on the
French Isle of Illiec in the English
Channel
There are reports that he is building
. mechanical kidney to carry wastes
from and secrete vital fluids in organs
kept artif1cially alive in the me
chanical heart" There are reports
that he is building bigger hearts" of
a size sufficient to handle whole Or
gans and sets of organs.
Both these developments are limited
at in a book, The Culture Of Organs, :"
recently published jointly by Lind
bergh and DR.. Carrel. But all that
any one other than the two men really
knows is that this man of mystery is
on one little island, that DR.. Carrel
is on another little island within
walking distance when the tide is out
and the rocks are barred, and that
the two are collaborating on some sort
Of new development in DR.. Carrers
dream of an indefinite life span.
The Toolmaker.
That is all any one really knows
NhNYIf tho u,bo =
to 60 down in history as one of the
worlds greatest toolmakers. There
are no little personal anecdotes about
his work, as there are about most
great men. There are no leaks" of
Information to the newspapers, as
there are from most public figures.
There is nothing to embroider the
simple name &C. A. Lindbergh."
Despite this passion for anonymity,
despite the inscrutable secrecy, Col.
Lindbergh may be the man to make
science remember it's forgotten men.
Those forgotten men are the tool
makers.
Down through the ages the tool
makers have hewn the road for civili-
zation. The lever and the wheel had
TO come before the machine. The ball
ance had to come before science. And
who remembers the inventor of the
wheel? Who recalls the first user of
the lever? Who remembers whose
brain devised the scales?
Albert Enstein's theories are world
famous. He could not have evolved
theme were there no telescope. What
toolmaker built the first telescope?
Galileo, some will say, but history says
Calico only borrowed the idea from
an old lensmaker of uncertain name
whose children one day happened to
look through two bits OF glass at a
church steeple.
Toolmaker Remembered.
Toolmakers have come and tool
makers have gone, and science has
forgotten them. But Lindbergh is diff
ferent. Lindbergh came to science in
1880, already famous as the boy who
new the Atlantic solo for the first time.
The Staying of his first-born son.
Charles. jr.. had given his name to a
nationwide law against kidnapping be-
fore the significance OF his "mechan-
lcal heart" was realized. His flight
to England, to protect his second son.
John, made news of his every move
since then. So science could not we'll
forget Lindbergh, even II his inven-
ton were not so full of promise as it
Is for the future of medicine.
Because Of the mystery with which
1t has been surrounded, the man in
the street has not been permitted to
know how much the Lindbergh
heart" may some day mean. Scien-
tine periodicals have reported it tech
nically in the last seven years and
newspapers have relayed the reports
IN popular language, but the veil is
nfted from the real story only in the
Culture of Organs book, and there
only cautiously.
1he book tells nothing of the human
element-of how Lindbergh met DR..
Carrel through the anesthetist who at
tended Mrs. Lindbergh at her first
childbirth of the struggle he had
with f1ve different types of artificial
hearts before achieving perfection
OF the tragic days of kidnapping and
death which interrupted the work-of
the drastic precautions taken that he
might not be recognized or disturbed.
1t gives only rough sketch of the
dramatic picture Of this Carrel labora-
tory where everything is gray or black.
from windowless walls to operating ia
ble towels. from floors to furniture,
from the bottom hem of the scientists
gowns to the top of their diving he'll
metlike hoods.
But it tells in simple words what it
means to science to be able to keep
tissues and organs alive outside the
body. in the Lindbergh glass heart. :"
where any reaction can be freely OBJ
served any time.
Anatomy has been rendered capa-
bic Of describing the body as it is"
DR.. Carrel writes. Specifically:
The healing process can be observed
In wounds.