DEATH AND IMMORTALITY 171 



of consciousness that most refined and subtle 

 of all bodily functions. Other structures stand in a 

 very different relation to the withdrawal of the 

 blood supply. It is true that they suffer change 

 from this deprivation and that they tend to undergo 

 that solution in their own juices which physiologists 

 call autolysis. But, if within a short time after the 

 cessation of the supply of oxygen-laden blood this 

 supply be restored, there is a return of func- 

 tional activity. Thus the liver can be caused, by 

 perfusion with blood, to secrete bile, and the kidney 

 to make urine. Dr. Carrel preserved a human 

 artery in cold brine for thirty-five days, and found 

 it to be entirely functional at the end of this time, 

 and able to replace permanently an artery which 

 had been removed from a dog. And many years 

 ago Professor Newell Martin isolated the heart of 

 a dog from the body and placed it under conditions 

 which permitted it to beat regularly for many hours. 

 From these facts it is clear that death, in the ordi- 

 nary sense, does not mean the coincident death of 

 all parts of the body, but is compatible with the 

 survival, and even the long survival, of certain kinds 

 of cells. So when we see before us a human being 

 who has just drawn his last breath, we know that in 

 a technical sense death has not occurred in all parts 

 of his body, because in certain parts there remains, 

 for a time, the possibility of rehabilitation of function. 

 This inequality in the fate of different tissues 

 deprived of their supply of blood and oxygen leads 



