MIRACLES OF SCIENCE 



various drugs upon different tissues of the body will 

 be given a specific character that could hardly have 

 been attained by any previously known method of 

 experimentation. 



Another application of the knowledge that tissues 

 cut from excised organs may retain vitality for con- 

 siderable periods, was made recently by a Paris 

 surgeon, who restored partial sight to a blind man 

 by excising a portion of the opaque cornea of his eye 

 and replacing it with a piece of cornea of like size 

 cut from an enucleated eye that had been kept for 

 some days in a refrigerator. The operation was suc- 

 cessful, in that the fragment of cornea took kindly to 

 its new surroundings and grew permanently into 

 place, retaining its transparency. It would be hazard- 

 ous to fix bounds to the transplantations of tissues 

 that will be effected by the surgeon of the future. 

 Even now, as it appears, it is possible to relieve a con- 

 dition of blindness that is very common, and which 

 hitherto has been considered incurable. 



There is one other aspect of the experiment of 

 growing tissues outside the body which suggests 

 possibilities even more bizarre and startling. I refer 

 to the tests which show that the embryo of a chicken 

 may be removed from the egg and caused, for a time 

 at least, to continue its development in the culture 

 medium. Similar tests were made with fragments of 

 animal embryos. The embryos, to be sure, did not 

 come to maturity; but the fact that they lived and! 

 grew for a time suggests astounding possibilities for 

 the method when it is perfected. 



It would seem to be within the possibilities that 



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