Evening star., 1939-06-18

IN the hospitals of Lyons. he was
deeply impressed by the work and
theories of DR.. Claude Bernard. often
called the father of physiology 1t
was Bernard who first pointed out
that death is no absolute concept.
That the organs of the human body
may remain alive after the body as
whole has ceased to function. Con-
vinced, after his own experiments,
that here the riddle of life itself was
to be found, Carrel went ahead to
perfect technique by which he could
study the function of the organs -
not as dead tissue on the dlssecting
table, but as living. pulsing entities.
But the Medical Faculty in Lyons
had little patience with this young
man and his fantastic schemes. First
in Chicago and then in New York he
found men who believed in him. His
first triumph was the successful sew
ing together, or suturing. of blood
vessels. That enabled him to cut
whole organs out of body and trans
plant them to another
A series of extraordinary expert
ments followed that caused sensa-
ton at the time. A segment of an
artery from mans knee joint was
taken out, stored for three weeks, and
transplanted to a dogs aorta. The
dog lived. Part of the head of one dog,
including the ear and parts of the
carotid artery and of the jugular
vein, was transferred to another dog.
The heart of one animal was trans
plated to the neck of another and
made to beat.
When he had mastered the tech
nique of these operations. DR.. Carrel
went further He was finally able to
remove the entire viscera of cat and
to keep the heart. lungs. liver, and
other organs alive and working for
several hours This was the culmina-
tion of almost twenty-five years of
continuous work. interrupted only
by the World War when Dr. Carrel
was in France - first as surgeon IN
the French Army. then as head of the
hospital established by the Rookie
feller Institute at Compiegnes - and
by brief excursions into other fields
of research.
After the viscera experiment., prog
ress was slow Constant infection
defeated all of DR.. Carrels efforts to
keep organs alive for more than few
hours. 1t seemed impossible to con-
struct a system that would protect
the excised organ outside the body,
And then, in 1890, came Llndbergh
with his "perfuslon pump" The flier
had met Dr. Carrel. been shown
around the laboratory. asked intelll-
gent questions. Carrel had explained
the problem that now seemed to bar
further progress. Lindbergh went
away thoughtful, and in a few weeks
was back with the answer to the Doc
tors prayer.
BY means of the pump, hearts.
kidneys. livers safely sealed in glass;
are fed a rhythmically pulsating
stream of nourishing fluid that per-
forms the SAME function that blood
does in the human system. 1t is now
possible to keep organs alive up to
periods of thirty days and more, and
to study the effect on them of high
and low blood pressure. of varying
pulse rate. and types of nourishment
by altering the pulsations of the
pump and the chemical composition
of the fluid that it circulates through
the organ. About l 900 tests have been
made and mass of data already
accumulated.
For DR.. Carrel a very deep mean
ing underlies his work. 1t is not science
for the sake of science alone that
interests him. but the conviction that
fuller knowledge of the construction
and function of man as whole will
make better and HAMMER world