WINNER OF NOBEL RESEARCH PRIZE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1067, 22 February 1913, Page 4

WINNER OF NOBEL RESEARCH PRIZE.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR HUMAN LIFE.

Dr. Alexis Carrel has been awarded the Nobel Prize of for what he has done in medical research. This is the world's blue ribbon in scienceWhat has Dr. Carrel done to deserve it ?

By his researches “the boundary of experiment in the prolongation of life has been pushed forward another degree,” says one statement. IMPOSSIBLE TO OBVIOUS. “His work,” says Dr. James J. Walsh in the “Independent,” “opens up vistas as significant as those which came when Virchow established cellular pathology, and Pasteur laid the foundation of bacteriology. Many of the ideas are so unfamiliar that to most people they seem impossible, but it can be readily understood that these are just the sort of discoveries that after a while will seem almost obvious. All great discoveries are said to run the gamut from the impossible to the obvious. The giving of the Nobel Prize will doubtless stimulate the discoverer to the full development of his fine scientific investigating spirit, and we may look for ah evolution of these basic truths to a new science of life.

“During 1 the past year his work has been 'on the preservation of life in cold storage.” What does that signify in the wayof acts done and significance and use for the future ?

WHAT DR. CARREL HAS DONE

What Dr. Carrel has done, stated in prose, is this, according to Dr. J. J. Walsh (in the “Independent”) : “It has long been known that the heart of many of the lower animals continues to beat for a considerable time after the animals death. The frog’s heart, for instance, may easily be kept alive for hours, or even days. The same thing is true for practically all of the cold-blooded animals. It was known that in warmblooded animals stimulation might give rise to a short series of beats of the heart after the death of an animal. It was left for Dr. Cc-rrel, however, to demonstrate that portions of the heart of warmblooded animals might be stimulated into activity for a long time after , the death ot the animal, indeed almost indefinitely, if kept under conditions in which exhausted material was removed, and some nutritious material supplied. Portions of the heart of the chick, for instance, might be thus made to beat after removal from the body, and then if kept in cold storage the renewal of the beating might be brought about by stimulation after long intervals. As to how long life in the heart might be thus retained has not yet been decided, but it seems possible for an indefinite period to re-awaken this functional vital activity under favourable conditions.” WBAT DR, CARREL SAYS, Dr. Carrel’s ultimate object is to relieve human suffering and to prolong life. “It would be very convenient,” says Dr. Carrel, “for surgeons to keep in store pieces of skin, cartilage, blood vessels, peritoneum, bone, omentum, and fat ready to be used. I attempted to preserve the tissue outside the organism in a condition of active or latent life.

“The colour and consistency of the tissues remained generally normal for several weeks. After six, seven, or even leu months, the microscopical appearance ot the arteries was not markedly modified.

“The results obtained by Tuffler, Magitot, and myself, demonstrate that human tissues preserved in cold storage could be used in human surgery. “ ‘lf it were possible,’ he said, “to transplant immediately alter death the tissues and organs which compose the body into other identical organisms no elemental death would occur, and all the constituent parts of the body would continue to live.’ “The organs of the animal which continued to live for ten hours in Dr. Carrel’s laboratory were taken by him and placed in the solution which a very infinity of experiments had ' taught him was the one required. The blood had to be aerated continuously by the artificial respiration -supplied from oxygen pumps, and the desired temperature was maintained through the laboratory equipment, much as it is preserved in an - incubator. Then Dr. Carrel watched while the organs