21 



Carrel foresaw in this melhod a very im|)<)rlaiil way 

 to make a fiindamenlnl study oi" tissue cells under various 

 experimental conditions and together with Burrows he 

 extended the use of the method to the cultivation ol' other 

 kinds of tissues. By an ingenious method of organizing the 

 experiments a marvellous technique was developed for tis- 

 sue cultivation in vitro. Carrel and Burrows^') very 

 soon succeeded in cultivating all kinds of embryonic tissue, 

 tissue from different adult organisms and cells from neo- 

 plasms. The results of these experiments were looked upon 

 by the scientific world with great expectations. The ex- 

 periments were repeated by the majority of biologists, mor- 

 |:)h()logists and pathologists, without, however, much success 

 and with rather disappointing results. 



Consequently many investigators became very sceptic and 

 pessimistic in regard to the employment of the method. 

 The progress in this line of work by the pioneers w^as so 

 great tha' it was hard for other investigators to keep pace 

 with it and they became sceptics. A large cpiantity of 

 literature was published on the subject, and from France 

 and Germany es])ecially. a decided opposition was met 

 with. This part of the Iiistory is described very dramati- 

 cally in Albert 0])pers*32) book on ex])lantation, to 

 which can be referred. The objections generally urged were, 

 that the a])parent growth observed in the tissue cul- 

 tures was not actual growth, but a combination of active 

 cell migration and a passive outfloating of cells caused 

 by currents from the explantcd tissue to the medium. 



Some investigators went so far as to regard the growth 

 as a ])henomenon of necrobiosis. (.Toll y) -'7'^. 277> xhe reason 

 why so much oj)))osilion was encountered was primarily 

 that the organization of the culture work made by others than 

 the pioneers w^as very poor and that from few unsuccessful 

 experiments unreliable conclusions were usually drawn. It 

 was necessary accurately to follow up the technique if 

 good results were to be expected and this particular work 

 requires much care and ])atience if success is to be expected. 



