Alexis Carrel

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Alexis Carrel (June 28, 1873 - November 5, 1944) was a French surgeon, biologist and social scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Contributions to science 3 Man, the Unknown 4 Legacy 5 References 6 See also 7 External links 8 Sources 8.1 References

Biography

Born in Lyon, Carrel practiced in France and in the United States at the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Institute. He developed new techniques in vascular sutures and was a pioneer in transplantology and thoracic surgery. Alexis Carrel was also a member of learned societies in the U.S., Spain, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Vatican City, Germany, Italy and Greece and received honorary doctorates from Queen's University of Belfast, Princeton University, California, New York, Brown University and Columbia University. He collaborated with American physician Charles Claude Guthrie in work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs, and Carrel was awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for these efforts.^[1]

Contributions to science

On January 17, 1912, Carrel placed a part of chicken's embryo heart in fresh nutrient medium in a stoppered Pyrex flask of his design. Every 48 hours the tissue doubled in size and was transferred to a new flask. The tissue was still growing 20 years later, longer than a chicken's normal lifespan.

During the First World War (1914-1918), Carrel and the English chemist Henry Drysdale Dakin developed the Carrel-Dakin method of treating wounds with sutures, which prior to the development of widespread antibiotics, was a major medical breakthrough which is credited with saving thousnds of lives on the battlefield. For this, Carrel was awarded the L駩on d'honneur by the French government.

He co-authored a book with famed pilot Charles A. Lindbergh, The Culture of Organs, and worked with Lindbergh in the mid-1930s to create the "perfusion pump," which allowed living organs to exist outside of the body during surgery. The advance is said to have been a crucial step in the development of open-heart surgery and organ transplants, and to have laid the groundwork for the artificial heart, which became a reality decades later[1].

Both Lindbergh and Carrel appeared on the cover of Time magazine on June 13, 1938, honoring their achievements. Carrel's face was also featured on the front cover of Time on September 15, 1935, along with his saying, "Human beings are equal. But individuals are not." ^[2]

Man, the Unknown

In 1935, Carrel published a best-selling book titled L'Homme, cet inconnu (Man, This Unknown) which advocated, in part, a new appreciation for intangibles such as good health and less of a stress on acquiring wealth as a goal in life. The book also advocated personal morality and public decency, and Carrel - a believer in Catholic mysticism - expressed his belief that mankind's spirit was often neglected in an overly industrialized world. His theme that human beings should not be treated "like a number" and should be treated as individuals would be echoed in later generations dealing first with factory life and then with a bar coded, information-overloaded world.

In the book, Carrel also stated his belief that eventually, mankind could better itself by following the guidance of an elite group of intellectuals, which would include scientists, sociologists and other learned people. This "Council of Doctors" would alert the public to dangers in foods, chemicals and other dangers that threaten to lower the quality of life or reduce lifespan. His work can be seen as a precursor of the "Self Help" movement that swept Western nations after World War II and continues to this day.

Legacy

Carrel's vast contributions to science have been largely forgotten. Charges of collaboration with the Vichy Regime in France during World War II contributed to this obscurity.

During the final year of World War II, the Vichy government set up an institute that resembled, in part, Carrel's vision of a group of scientists helping mankind. The end of the war came quickly, however, and he was briefly accused after the war of collaborationism. He died before the trial.

In 1972, the Swedish Post Office honored Carrel with a stamp that was part of its Nobel stamp series.^[3] In 1979, the lunar crater Carrel was named after him as a tribute to his scientific breakthroughs.

References

1. ^ Nobelprize.org
2. ^ Time Magazine article, Sept. 15, 1935.
3. ^ Swedish stamp honoring Dr. Carrel

See also

• Nobel Prize
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

External links

• Nobel Prize presentation speech to Dr. Carrel
• Nobel Prize biography of Dr. Carrel
• Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood - PBS Television series Website article on Carrel's contributions to science

Sources

• Carrel, Alexis. Man, The Unknown. New York and London: Harper and Brothers. 1935.
• Wallace, Max. The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich St. Martin's Press, New York, 2003.
• Szasz, Thomas. The Theology of Medicine New York: Syracuse University Press, 1977.
• Schneider, William. Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France, Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine (chap. 7 French eugenics in the thirties; and 10 Vichy and after)

Template:Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1901-1925

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Alexis_Carrel" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Carrel, used under the GNU Free Documentation License