LIFE’S SECRET

Evening Star, Issue 22816, 26 November 1937, Page 13

LIFE’S SECRET

RESEARCH ON LONELY ISLE reviving dead organs I have just learned the secret behind Colonel Lindbergh's recent visit to the lonely island of St. Gildas, on the Brittany coast {writes Victor Burnett in the ‘ Sunday Express’). The famous airman’s orange-and-black monoplane swooped over, the isle and landed at a nearby airfield. Later he paddled to the island in a rubber had arrived to help his friend, Dr Alexis Carrel, scientist and Nobel Prize winner, in a vital part of an experiment that may reveal the secret of life itself. In a guarded, walled laboratory on St. Gildas, 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. ~ His visit to St. Gildas was to fit one of the most important parts of the new machine. He has the reputation of being one of the best scientific mechanics in the world. _ Not even world-famous scientists have -been told details of the experiment. Pear of failure is the reason for secrecy. Not until it succeeds will Dr Carrel publish his results. I have, however, gleaned some facts about a process that may change the whole course of human life. Some years ago Dr Carrel published a theory 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 consists of taking various living organs, such as glands, killing them by drying them—and bringing them 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 them baek 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 been apparently'dead for years can be brought hack 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. GREAT CHAPTER. Th 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 others, similar in structure, are inanimate. Alexis Carrel may find out. Some months ago Dr Carrel and Colonel Lindbergh demonstrated the artificial heart they had made. This heart enabled an organ taken from an ■animal to be kept alive long after the death of its owner. It acted just like a human heart, kept blood and other essentials cours-

ing through the organ, which was kept in a glass life chamber. It was haded as a masterpiece of scientific research; On the Carrel island there is now % much-improved version of this that can even k©cp a* 'brain aliv© after th.© animal it was taken from is dead. This alone will contribute a great deal to medical knowledge of _ brain diseases. Scientists will actually b 0 able to watch the course of a brain disorder and see the effect of various types of treatment. , This new heart, I understand, form# part of th© secret life machine, allied with other intricate apparatus—part# of which might be described as a mechr anical brain.