SKIN IN COLD STORAGE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1815, 30 July 1913, Page 14

SKIN IN COLD STORAGE.

A DOCTOR'S STOCK FOE HUMAN GiiAFTING. Dr. Alexis Carrel, the pioneer of human grafting, gave a gliinjife into tlio future of sursory in a. lecture he delivered in Paris on .Tune 17. He announced that, from the, surgical standpoint, .. it was perfectly feasible to transplant a member, such as an arm or a thigh, at will. It was "only a question of snn;:-froid" and technical skill. But his experiments had revealed the existence of individuality in the animals ho had used for his researches. Wliilo it was possiblo to re-frraft successfully on to an animal a member "such as a kidney previously removed from it, it was not tho same tiling to sraft the kidney of one do? on. to another. Tho prrafted organ in the second case withered <iihl produced symptoms of premature senile decay in tho animal' used for the experiment, which inevitably died. Therefore, to replace a diseased kidney in. a human being by a kidney taken from a sound subject . would In impossible until this enigma of individuality had been solved.. Tho transplantation of arteries and skin-grafting were at present, iwssible. He had arranged with a Neiv York hospital to keep him supplied with tho necessary reserve stock of skin, which he preserved in cold storage by a special process he lias invented. Parisians arc looking forward to the day when a man who has been severely burnt in Siberia may owe his lifo to a supply of skin providentially dispatched to liiin from Dr. Carrel's cold storage in .New York. IT. Clement Vautel, tho licensed jester .of the Parisians, humorously suggests' in tho "Ifatiji" that tlw newspapers mav soon have to open their columns to such an ndvei'tife'nent as the following:— TOR KAT.E. heart in gcod condition, belonging to a young person. "Would suit fair, sentimental, wealthy gentleman. "Write "Mile. X."