Several years ago a wealthy Swedish manufacturer of dynamite left, by
his will, a fund for the providing of a large prize to be conferred
each year upon the person who has accomplished most for the peaceful
progress of mankind. This annual sum of forty thousand dollars, which
is called from its donor the "Nobel prize," was, in October, 1912,
conferred upon a surgeon, Dr. Alexis Carrel, for his remarkable work in
the study of the life of the tissues and organs which exist in the
human body.
Even before this public recognition of his work, Dr. Carrel had in the
summer of 1912 created a furor among the savants of Paris by the
announcement of what he had accomplished. Carrel, though a native-born
Frenchman, is an American by education and citizenship, and the French
were at first inclined to challenge the value of his work. We therefore
present here a "popular" scientific account of what he had achieved,
reprinted by permission from the _Scientific American_. Then comes the
grudging approval of Professor Legendre, the noted "Preparator of
Zoology," head of that section in the National Museum of Paris.
Briefly stated, the impressive step which science has here taken, is
the preservation of life in the heart and other organs so that these
may be taken out of the body and yet kept alive for months. With
smaller animals Carrel has even accomplished the actual transferrence
of organs from one individual to another. As for the simpler bodily
tissues, it now seems possible to preserve these indefinitely outside
the body, not only alive but in excellent health and ready to reassume
their functions in another body.