"ETERNAL LIFE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 13

"ETERNAL LIFE"

HUMAN ORGANS METHOD OF PRESERVING REMARKABLE DISCOVERY EXPERIMENTS IN AMERICA IMPORTANT POSSIBILITIES By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received June 21, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 20 Apparatus and technique capable of keeping human organs alive outside the body have been perfected by Dr. Alexis Carrel and Colonel Charles Lindbergh, the famous airman, working under the auspices of (he Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.

This announcement is regarded as one of the most sensational in the annals of medicine and science.

According to a report jointly signed by Dr. Carrel and Colonel Lindbergh they created an "artificial heart and a man-made blood stream," enabling science, for the first time, to keep the vital organs alive and functioning indefinitely in what is described as a "chamber of eternal life."

The method, as perfected with organs of animals, consists of the transplantation of an organ or of any part of a body into a sterile chamber and of its artificial feeding with a nutrient fluid through the arteries. Dr. Carrel and Colonel Lindbergh point out that their process is not a substitute for the well-known "tissue culture." They add: "Through the employment of complex mechanical and surgical procedures, the whole of the organs are enabled to live isolated from the body tissue.

"The culture deals with the cells as units of the structure. Our method deals with the cellular societies as an organic whole. The method makes possible the carrying on of important experiments with human organs. "Heart disease, kidney disorders, hardening of the arteries, diabetes, tuberculosis, cancer and other dread diseases now can be studied closely under controlled conditions." The discoverers of the process say that 26 experiments have been performed since the latest model of their chamber was constructed. Adult fowls and cats were generally used. Dr. Carrel is a past winner of a Nobel prize and one of the discoverers of the so-called Carrel-Dakin solution, which, it is claimed, saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers in the Great War.

" This opens up immense possibilities." said a leading Auckland doctor to whom the above cablegram was referred last evening. He stated that the whole matter was new to him and that,.as far as ho knew, no word of it had appeared in scientific publications circulating in New Zealand. Dr. Carrel, he said, was an internationally known figure with many notable achievements in the field of surgical research, although it was not apparent what part Colonel Lindbergh had played in the latest discovery. "It is quite obvio'js that if the procedures outlined in the cablegram can be carried out," the doctor continued. " the new apparatus and technique will prove invaluable for research purposes. It is in that direction that it would be chiefly applied and possibly it wili be subject to severe limitations at first. The discovery may not have any direct bearing on treatment at present, but, if it facilitates research as it should, it may lead to still further advances both in medicine and surgery."

The local doctor added that Dr. Carrel was one of the original group of surgeons and pathologists who had carried out work in connection with tissue culture —the taking of separate cells from the body and keeping them alive over a period of years. He also pointed out that even at present it was possible to take the heart of an animal and keep it alive for a matter of hours by perfusing a nutrient fluid through the blood vessels.

In that connection, the report mentioned the use of a nutrient fluid as an integral part of the new development. Such a fluid would consist of water in which had been dissolved certain salts found in the blood, so that in effect it would be artificial blood. Possibly Dr. Carrel had found some new salt or other substance to add to the fluid. Dr. Carrel is a Frenchman who has had a brilliant career both in Europe and America. He left France fairly early in the present century and, with the exception of the war years, has since been associated with the Rockefeller Institute. He won the Nobel prize in 1912 for success in suturing blood vessels and transplantation of organs. In addition to his other work he has been actively engaged in cancer research.