Chapter 12 



The Problems and the Criteria of Success or 



Failure in Transplantation of 



Tissues and Organs 



jk fter having stated the principal experimental data relating to the in- 

 l\ dividuality and species differentials in higher organisms, obtained by 

 jl JL means of transplantation of tissues, we shall now add some brief 

 considerations concerning various problems which arose in the course of these 

 investigations and the criteria of success or failure used in the evaluation of 

 such experiments by various authors. 



In the later period of the last, and at the beginning of this century, it was 

 noted by some clinicians and pathologists that autotransplantations of certain 

 organs may succeed better than transplantations into other animals belonging 

 to the same species. Thus Knauer, Ribbert and others obtained more favorable 

 results after autogenous than after homoiogenous transplantations of the 

 ovaries, but Ribbert believed that in some instances also homoiotransplanta- 

 tions of organs may succeed. We found that tumors could be successfully auto- 

 transplanted in cases in which homoiotransplantations failed. We carried out 

 successful autotransplantations of pigmented skin in guinea pigs into defects 

 in white skin, but Carnot and Deflandres, who had obtained similar results, 

 thought that homoiotransplantations succeeded equally well. However, Sale 

 who compared the results of auto- and homoiotransplantations of pigmented 

 skin in the guinea pig in our laboratory found that only autogenous transplants 

 healed in permanently while homoiogenous grafts were as a rule cast off after 

 some time and that during this preliminary period lymphocytes collected under- 

 neath the transplant. Christiani (1900-1905) believed that the thyroid gland 

 in various species can be transplanted successfully into the same animal, as 

 well as into other animals of the same species, and even into different races 

 and varieties. Yet, the experimental immunological and serological studies, 

 which began to develop actively during this period, had already exerted a 

 certain influence on the interpretation of experiments in transplantation, and, 

 accordingly, Christiani noted that transplantation into different families, or- 

 ders and classes of animals did not succeed, with the exception of transplanta- 

 tions between guinea pig and rabbit, which were successful. But, some- 

 what later it was more generally recognized that homoiotransplants of organs 

 did not, as a rule, survive. Halsted, for instance, obtained negative results 

 with homoiotransplantation of parathyroid in dogs. In many cases at this time 

 and also for some time afterwards, investigators did not definitely distinguish 

 between homoio- and syngenesiotransplantation, although in other cases such 

 a distinction was made, as for instance, by Goodale, who carried out ovarian 



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