Colonel Lindbergh's Secret

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

Colonel Lindbergh's Secret

THE secret behind Colonel Lindbergh's dramatic visit to the lonely island of

St. Gildas, on the Brittany coast, has been revealed by the Paris correspondent of a London paper. He went there to help his friend, Dr. Alexia Carrel, scientist and Nobel Prize winner, in a vital part of an experiment that may reveal the secret of life itself. The correspondent says:—

In a guarded, walled laboratory on St. Cildas a machine is being slowly assembled. Only two men have ever seen it or know exactly what its ultimate function will be. They are Dr. Carrel and Colonel Lindbergh.

Lindbergh has helped Carrel to build the machine. It was these two who startled the scientific world recently by perfecting an artificial heart to keep organs in the body alive almost indefinitely.

Lindbergh's visit was to fit one of the most important parts of the machine. He has the reputation of being one of the best scientific mechanics in the world.

Some years ago Dr. Carrel published a theory that he held that life might be prolonged for centuries if the right scientific process was followed. Now, in his elaborate laboratory, he is trying to prove that theory.

Basically, it consist* of taking various liviug organs, such as glands, killing tliom by drying them—and bringing thcia back to life.

All tests show that the dry tissues are dead. But the secret Dr. Carrel process, through the new apparatus, may be able to preserve the dead glands and then, at any desired moment, bring tliem back to a living, healthy state— exactly similar to the moment they were taken from the original body.

The main development of this experiment, if it succeeds, may mean that an animal that has l>een apparently dead for years can be brought back to life in exactly the same condition it was in when life was suspended—no older, in perfect health.

One day, Dr. Carrel has said, human beings may have their animation suspended for any period they desire and return to life at selected periods.

The experiment now going on is only at the start. Small pieces of tissue only are being tried. If he succeeds with these, larger pieces, then whole organs, will be tried.

The results of the new work, when published, will contribute a great chapter to the story of man's quest for knowledge. Nobody knows what makes some collections of matter alive, while othera similar in structure are inanimate. Alexis Carrel may <ind out.