SHOULD WE DIE?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16465, 29 June 1921, Page 7

SHOULD WE DIE?

DOCTOR’S AMAZING TEST. f NO “NATURAL DEATH,” Xiiie years ago Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute, placed a small piece of chicken heart in a solution of chicken plasma and other media, and confided the specimen to an incubator at 39deg Centigrade. To the inexperienced layman there was nothing romarkabie in this experiment, but to the scientist this chicken tissue soon assumed tho utmost importance. For, contrary to the rule then regarded as an immutable one. the specimen lost neither life nor function. This piece of a chicken heart, removed from the living body and confined in a test tube, continued to liehave as naiurallv as though existing in its accustomed habitat. Moreover, the passing of time ajv parcntlv had no influence upon its vi- j talitv. It manifested no signs of grow- | ing old. Dr Can-el discovered that two i simple precautions would keev> it in ! the bloom of perpetual youth. At I stated periods it was given a hath in j an antiseptic solution : at the same j time it was provided with certain food ; which supplied all of its phvsiologicnl I needs. So long as these simple pre- • cautions were observed, this minute ; section of a chicken heart not only kept j living and proliferating—more start- ; ling still, it also showed not the slight- j e • sign of S r< wing old. .AX AAT A ZING ANSWER. Far back in 1912. when this daring 1 ! experiment was begun, Dr Carrel was | asked how long his specimen would : live. Ilis answer was amazing. So ' long as these precautions were observi edj ho saw no reason why it should not ! live for ever. Jf it were frequently ; sterilised, thus eliminating all possiI fiilit.y of infection, and if it were judi- ! ciously and periodically fed, lie could ! see no necessity of death, j For two years the experimenter gave. Ins precious tissue his personal attention—and it continued to keep young and vigorous (says tho * ' World’s Work ”). Then the world war took Dr Carrel to France, where ho remained four years. During his absence an assistant religiously tended this new kind of vestal flame; so that, when the distinguished Frenchman returned to his duties ho I found his little piece of chicken heart ; still alive and proliferating—as active I and vigorous as when he left. Nino years have now passed and the ; first sign of decay has not yet appeared. All chickens contemporary with that from which this specimen was ob- : tnined have long since gone the way of all flesh : but this action lives on. . apparently- immortal. Time has no ©f- . feet upon it. Tt is just as young to- ; day as on the day when it was removed from its parent- Tho usual gradna- ■ lions of human experience—infancy, youth, maturity, senescense, death—are not for it. At last science seems to have found the fountain of eternal IDEAS TO BE REVISED, j While ibis Carrel demonstration will j not abolish death it will inevitably lead , to a revision of certain current ideas lon that subject. Until this piece of j chicken heart had upset their definj itior.s, scientists had usually divided j death into two kinds-—accidental death and natural death. Accidental death is tho kind to which the vast majority of mankind was supposed to succumb. It was death caused by forces not inherent- in the physical frame itself. It was death caused by an automobile accident, a fall from a ten-storey building, or tho invasion of the germs of pneumonia or typhus. All death caused by disease was listed as acciden- ! Lai death—-for this represented an assault made upon the body of external | forces. For this same reason all deaths j re avoidable —at least theoretically, t If wo could keep ourselves absolute- ! ly protected from di-ease germs, and | from those forces which cause other 1 ailments, the precise nature of which f is not yet understood —wo should not | die of accidental death. | But science has insisted that, irrespective of all such influences, death I would still be inevitable. The common parlance of men has recognised this same belief in the familiar phrase. death from old ago.” The physical mechanism, whatever its future so far as disease or violence is concerned, must gradually run down and finally cease its operations. When this process is complete, when a man lias died, not because he has been shot or fallen a victim to disease, but because his weary frame is unable to perform its Junctions, he is said to have died a “natural death”—or a “death from old age.” ETERNAL YOUTH, j Scientists had long recognised that ; such taking off are extremely rare j that is, that the vast majority of deaths i arc accidental; but that they actually S ook pluce had hardly been disputed, i But Dr Carrel’s experiment seems to prove that there is really no such ! thing as natural death. ."Moreover, it ! apparently indicates that there is not j necessarily any such jltlng as senescence ! or decay. Given certain conditions, i the. human frame should not only live i lor ever, but stay eternally young, t If the Rockefeller Institute could do for tho whole body what it has done for this little piece of chicken heart it could produce that phenomenon which has existed hitherto only in the fairyland of poets—a man ever fresh, ever young, and immortal. If each could bo kept absolutely free from infection and other contaminations, and provided with precisely the food needed for its sustenance, the problem of eternal life would be solved. Of course these conditions could never bo realised. But while this Carrel experiment will not destroy death, it, has modified certain | ideas about it. Tt has great significance • not only for the biologist, but for the philosopher and the theologian. Its application.in the treatment of disease can only dimly be foreseen.