BOOK
First Transplant Surgeon, The: The Flawed Genius Of Nobel Prize Winner, Alexis Carrel
(2016)
Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
This is a new account, of how, in the early 1900s, the French-born surgeon Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) set the groundwork for the later success in human organ transplantation, and gained America's first Nobel Prize in 1912. His other contributions were the first operations on the heart, and the first cell culture methods. He was prominent in military surgery in WW1, and in the 1930s, gained further fame when collaborating with the aviator Charles Lindbergh on an organ perfusion pump.But controversy followed his every move, including concerns over scientific misconduct, notably his claim to have obtained 'immortal' heart cells, now shown to be fraudulent. In 1934, he authored a best-selling book Man, the Unknown based on his strongly-held conservative, spiritual, political and eugenic views, adding a belief in faith healing and parapsychology. He settled in Paris in WW2 under the German occupation, believing that the conditions would allow him to refashion the degenerate Western civilization. His extremist views re-emerged in the 1990s when they proved interesting to right-wing politicians, and in a bizarre twist, jihadist Islamists now laud his criticisms of the West.
Table of Contents
Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
---|---|---|---|
Contents | xvii | ||
The Author | v | ||
Prologue | vii | ||
Acknowledgements | xv | ||
Chapter One Lyon Days | 1 | ||
School Days | 3 | ||
Lyon Student | 4 | ||
Lyon Medicine | 6 | ||
Surgical Training | 8 | ||
Personal Life | 9 | ||
Publications | 12 | ||
The Meetings | 13 | ||
Research Opportunities | 14 | ||
Promotion Opportunities | 15 | ||
The Paper | 17 | ||
Methods | 18 | ||
Carrel’s Method | 21 | ||
Events of 1902 | 22 | ||
Lourdes Visit | 23 | ||
The Cure | 25 | ||
Summer 1902 | 28 | ||
Promotion Denied | 29 | ||
Aftermath | 30 | ||
His Motives | 31 | ||
Chapter Two New Life in North America | 33 | ||
Chicago Hospitals | 35 | ||
A New Position | 37 | ||
Enter Guthrie | 38 | ||
Early Experiments | 40 | ||
New Studies | 43 | ||
Results | 45 | ||
Vessels and Organs | 45 | ||
The Patch | 49 | ||
The Publications | 49 | ||
First Publicity | 52 | ||
American Surgeons’ Interest | 55 | ||
Hopkins Interest | 59 | ||
Further Contact | 61 | ||
The Baltimore Meeting | 62 | ||
What If ? | 66 | ||
More Publicity | 67 | ||
Chapter Three Early Years at the Institute | 71 | ||
Philanthropists | 72 | ||
Rockefeller Money | 73 | ||
Gates’ Plan | 74 | ||
A Director Appointed | 78 | ||
Staff Recruitment | 78 | ||
Outside Concerns | 80 | ||
More Funds | 80 | ||
The New Home | 81 | ||
Carrel Starts | 83 | ||
Carrel’s First Year | 84 | ||
Courting Publicity | 86 | ||
Personal Details | 88 | ||
Summer Break | 89 | ||
Surgical Work | 89 | ||
Career Options | 90 | ||
Publications | 91 | ||
Institute Projects | 92 | ||
Kidney Grafts | 92 | ||
Post-Operative Phase | 94 | ||
The Homograft Puzzle | 95 | ||
Other Projects | 96 | ||
The Hospital | 97 | ||
Transplants in Cats | 98 | ||
The Cat Story Breaks | 99 | ||
Public Concern | 100 | ||
New York Antivivisectionists | 102 | ||
Chapter Four Carrel Established | 105 | ||
Word Spreads | 108 | ||
Legislation Stalls | 109 | ||
Lectures and Leg Grafts | 109 | ||
Further Publicity | 112 | ||
Institute Action | 114 | ||
Public Involved | 115 | ||
Caution Required | 117 | ||
Institute Visitors | 118 | ||
Guthrie in St. Louis | 120 | ||
Guthrie Takes Offence | 122 | ||
Homograft Failure Recognised | 124 | ||
Further Antivivisectionist Pressure | 125 | ||
New Directions | 128 | ||
Chapter Five The Birth of Tissue Culture | 129 | ||
Carrel’s Interest | 131 | ||
Back to the Institute | 132 | ||
New Vistas | 134 | ||
Professional Tensions | 136 | ||
Technique Improves | 138 | ||
French Reaction | 139 | ||
Rebuttal in America | 141 | ||
The Paris Meeting | 142 | ||
New Evidence | 143 | ||
Successful Growth | 144 | ||
Cell Senescence | 146 | ||
Back to Paris | 148 | ||
Chapter Six The Nobel Prize | 151 | ||
The Winner | 152 | ||
Difficulties Emerge | 155 | ||
The Nobel Lecture | 156 | ||
Publicity Concerns | 157 | ||
Noguchi’s Work | 158 | ||
Lowering the Profile | 159 | ||
Marriage | 161 | ||
Chapter Seven Heart and Blood Vessel Surgery | 165 | ||
‘Visceral’ Organism | 165 | ||
Corneal Grafting | 166 | ||
Developments in Transplantation | 167 | ||
Tissue Typing | 168 | ||
Blood Vessel Surgery 1909–1914 | 169 | ||
Aortic Surgery | 170 | ||
Thoracic Aorta | 171 | ||
The Heart | 172 | ||
Better Anaesthesia | 172 | ||
Into the Chest | 174 | ||
Meltzer’s Studies | 176 | ||
Attempts by Others | 178 | ||
Heart Surgery Resumed | 178 | ||
Murphy’s Insight | 182 | ||
The New York Meeting | 183 | ||
Outbreak of War | 187 | ||
Chapter Eight War in France | 189 | ||
Back to Lyon | 191 | ||
Local Action | 192 | ||
War Moves North | 195 | ||
New Infections | 196 | ||
Policy Shift | 197 | ||
Aftercare | 198 | ||
Carrel’s Move | 200 | ||
Staffing | 202 | ||
Selecting Injuries | 204 | ||
Crile’s Research Meeting | 205 | ||
Cushing Arrives | 206 | ||
Enter Dakin | 208 | ||
Perfusion System | 212 | ||
Publicity for the Méthode | 216 | ||
Carrel’s Response | 218 | ||
Industrial Interest | 221 | ||
The Treatment of Infected Wounds | 222 | ||
The Debate Continues | 222 | ||
Conferences | 223 | ||
Controversy Continues | 224 | ||
Wright’s Decline | 226 | ||
Dissent by Others | 227 | ||
Enter America | 228 | ||
Chapter Nine The Demonstration Hospital | 231 | ||
Wartime Work | 232 | ||
Murphy’s Bold Concept | 233 | ||
Using Lymphocyte Rebound | 234 | ||
The War Demonstration Hospital | 235 | ||
Civilian Patients | 238 | ||
Critics Appear | 239 | ||
Enter Bevan | 241 | ||
Teaching the Technique | 244 | ||
Cases Arrive | 245 | ||
Extending the Technique | 247 | ||
Influenza | 247 | ||
Setbacks | 249 | ||
Dakin’s New Antiseptic | 251 | ||
Reports | 251 | ||
Return to France | 252 | ||
New Projects | 253 | ||
The Last Battles | 254 | ||
The End of the Method | 256 | ||
Chapter Ten Early 1920s Research | 259 | ||
New Funds | 260 | ||
Carrel’s Expanded Division | 261 | ||
Carrel’s Laboratory | 264 | ||
Carrel’s Choices | 266 | ||
Loeb’s Lead | 267 | ||
Carrel’s Forgotten Grafts | 269 | ||
Murphy Diverted | 271 | ||
Rous Changes Course | 272 | ||
All Change | 273 | ||
Surgical World | 275 | ||
The ‘Old Strain’ Cell Line | 277 | ||
Senescence | 278 | ||
Some Concerns | 279 | ||
Culture Projects | 279 | ||
His Projects in Detail | 280 | ||
Other Studies and the Trephones | 283 | ||
Into Cancer | 284 | ||
Chapter Eleven Life in the 1920s | 287 | ||
The Island | 288 | ||
New York Life | 289 | ||
The Paranormal | 291 | ||
Carrel Encountered | 293 | ||
The ‘Philosophers’ | 296 | ||
Attitudes and Interests | 300 | ||
Carrel and France | 302 | ||
Academic Activities | 303 | ||
Committees and Associations | 305 | ||
Eugenics | 307 | ||
Publicity | 309 | ||
Fiction | 312 | ||
Withdrawal | 313 | ||
Chapter Twelve Confidence Gone | 315 | ||
Institute Policy | 316 | ||
Carrel’s Choices | 318 | ||
Doubts about the Cells | 319 | ||
Decline in Output | 323 | ||
Cancer Studies | 326 | ||
The Project | 328 | ||
Mouse Supplies | 330 | ||
The Studies | 330 | ||
The End | 331 | ||
Other Work | 332 | ||
Chapter Thirteen His Book — Man, the Unknown | 335 | ||
Popularising Science | 336 | ||
Writing the Book | 337 | ||
Publisher’s Caution | 338 | ||
The Text | 339 | ||
The Interwar Declinists | 340 | ||
Carrel’s Book | 342 | ||
Degeneracy Explained | 343 | ||
Mental Decay | 344 | ||
Changes in Food and Drink | 344 | ||
Disease Mechanisms | 345 | ||
Social Decay | 346 | ||
Environmental Degeneration | 347 | ||
Moral Degeneration | 348 | ||
Racial Factors | 349 | ||
Dating the Decline | 350 | ||
His Remedies | 350 | ||
Physical Remedies | 351 | ||
Spiritual Reform | 352 | ||
More Remedies | 354 | ||
Marriage and Women | 356 | ||
‘Isolats’ | 357 | ||
The ‘Unfit’ | 358 | ||
Euthanasia | 358 | ||
Military Strength | 359 | ||
Islam | 360 | ||
His Institute | 360 | ||
Publication | 363 | ||
Responses | 367 | ||
Impact | 368 | ||
Distant Sales | 369 | ||
Earnings | 371 | ||
Chapter Fourteen The Organ Pump | 373 | ||
The Plan | 374 | ||
Enter Lindbergh | 375 | ||
Earlier Interest | 376 | ||
The Visit | 377 | ||
Pump Work | 378 | ||
The Team | 381 | ||
Lindbergh’s Design | 383 | ||
First Results | 385 | ||
Publicity | 386 | ||
Carrel’s Lecture | 389 | ||
Pressure on the Lindberghs | 390 | ||
Chapter Fifteen Wider Involvement | 393 | ||
Lectures | 394 | ||
French Politics | 397 | ||
Pontigny Meeting | 399 | ||
Lindbergh’s Activities | 401 | ||
Lindbergh’s Other Projects | 402 | ||
Summer 1936 | 402 | ||
Copenhagen Meeting | 405 | ||
Back to the Island | 406 | ||
European Report | 406 | ||
Back to New York | 408 | ||
Reader’s Digest | 408 | ||
Visitors and Contacts | 410 | ||
Lindbergh Activities | 411 | ||
Pump Projects | 414 | ||
Lowering the Temperature | 416 | ||
Lectures and Awards | 418 | ||
Summer 1937 Visits | 418 | ||
Phi Beta Kappa | 420 | ||
Lindbergh’s Return Visit | 420 | ||
Biography Suggested | 421 | ||
Winter 1937 | 422 | ||
Into 1938 | 422 | ||
The Book | 426 | ||
Pump Use Spreads | 428 | ||
Legacy | 430 | ||
Chapter Sixteen Retirement Nears | 433 | ||
The Lecture | 433 | ||
Gasser’s Agenda | 436 | ||
Retirements Proposed | 438 | ||
Summer 1938 | 440 | ||
Lindbergh’s Mission | 441 | ||
Return to Germany | 442 | ||
Lindbergh’s Influence | 444 | ||
Carrel’s Plans | 446 | ||
European Possibilities | 448 | ||
The Lindberghs Return | 449 | ||
Carrel and Europe | 451 | ||
The Jews | 453 | ||
Retirement Date Nears | 454 | ||
Countdown | 456 | ||
Lindbergh’s Flask | 457 | ||
Winding Down | 457 | ||
Dispersal | 460 | ||
Other Retirees | 461 | ||
Chapter Seventeen To France and Back | 463 | ||
Lindbergh’s Moves | 463 | ||
Carrel’s War Work | 464 | ||
New Projects | 465 | ||
Changes at the Institute | 467 | ||
Carrel’s Return | 468 | ||
French Defeat | 469 | ||
Carrel and Vichy | 470 | ||
Vichy Contacts | 472 | ||
France Calls | 472 | ||
‘America First Committee’ | 473 | ||
Carrel’s Plan | 475 | ||
The Journey | 478 | ||
Chapter Eighteen Back to France | 479 | ||
In Lisbon and Spain | 480 | ||
Pétain Contact | 482 | ||
New York Watching | 485 | ||
Vichy Rule | 486 | ||
Island Negotiations | 488 | ||
Carrel’s ‘Fondation’ | 489 | ||
The Fondation’s Plan | 490 | ||
Accommodation Sought | 491 | ||
Administration | 492 | ||
The Structure | 494 | ||
Pronatalism Drive | 496 | ||
Biotypes Sought | 497 | ||
Race and Immigration | 497 | ||
Environment and Health | 498 | ||
Eugenics Studied | 499 | ||
The Bulletin | 500 | ||
What If ? | 501 | ||
German Contacts | 501 | ||
Agency Interest | 504 | ||
Americans in Paris | 506 | ||
The Resistance | 507 | ||
Carrel’s Attitude | 508 | ||
Paris Writings | 509 | ||
New York | 512 | ||
Coudert and Vichy | 513 | ||
Tide Turns | 515 | ||
His Illness | 516 | ||
Liberation Nears | 516 | ||
The Liberation | 517 | ||
Chapter Nineteen Aftermath | 521 | ||
Obituaries | 522 | ||
Collaboration Allegations | 524 | ||
His Actions | 524 | ||
What If ? | 526 | ||
Carrel’s Estate | 526 | ||
Immediate Reputation | 528 | ||
The Fondation’s Fate | 529 | ||
Geopolitical Landscape | 530 | ||
The New France | 532 | ||
France and Carrel | 535 | ||
Carrel Biographies | 535 | ||
Further Honours | 537 | ||
Catholic Links | 538 | ||
Other Writers | 540 | ||
Further Surgical Fame | 543 | ||
Tissue Culture | 546 | ||
Reputational Setbacks | 547 | ||
The Cells Persist | 548 | ||
Guthrie Remembered | 550 | ||
Public Setbacks | 552 | ||
More Pressure | 554 | ||
Beyond France | 556 | ||
Islamic Interest | 557 | ||
Muslim Brotherhood | 558 | ||
Envoi | 560 | ||
Bibliography and Sources | 561 | ||
Carrel’s Lyon Days | 563 | ||
Chicago Period | 563 | ||
Early Years at Rockefeller | 564 | ||
Vascular Surgery | 565 | ||
Tissue Culture | 565 | ||
Cardiac Surgery | 566 | ||
Transplantation | 566 | ||
World War I | 567 | ||
The 1920s | 568 | ||
Man, the Unknown | 569 | ||
The Pump | 570 | ||
Paris Events | 571 | ||
Aftermath | 571 | ||
Carrel’s Publications | 572 | ||
Books | 575 | ||
Abbreviations Used | 575 | ||
Index | 577 |