420 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



Such are, too briefly summarized, the experiments which have been 

 made up to the present time. We can readily imagine the practical 

 consequences which we may very shortly hope to derive from them, 

 and the wonderful apphcations of them which will follow in the 

 domain of surgery. Without going so far as the dream of Dr. Moreau 

 depicted by Wells, since grafts do not succeed between animals of 

 different species, we may hope that soon, in many cases, the replac- 

 ing of organs %vill be no longer impossible, but even easy, thanks to 

 methods of conservation and survival which will enable us to havo 

 always at hand materials for exchange. 



The dream of to-day may be reality to-morrow. 



There are also other consequences which will follow from these 

 researches. I hope that they will permit us to study the physical 

 and chemical factors of life under much simpler conditions than 

 heretofore, and it is toward this end that I am directing my 

 researches. They will enable us to approach much nearer the solu- 

 tion of the old insoluble problem of life and death. What indeed is 

 the death of an organism all of whose parts may yet survive for 

 some time? 



These, then, are the researches made in this domain, fecund from 

 every point of view, and the great increase in the number of experts 

 who are taking them up, while it is a proof of their interest, gives hope 

 for their rapid progress. 



