the heart of a rabbit that
had been kept in cold storage for 18 hours, and in the heart of a cat
similarly kept after 24 hours. The other muscular organs have naturally
been investigated in a manner analogous to that which has been used for
the heart; and for the same reason, because it can be readily seen
whether or not they are alive. The striated muscles survive for quite a
long time after removal, especially if they are preserved at the
temperature of the body and care is taken to prevent their drying. By
this method many investigations have been made of muscular contractions
in isolated muscles. Landois has noted that the muscles of a man may be
made to contract two hours and a half after removal, those of the frog
and the tortoise 10 days after. Recently Burrows (1911) has noted a
slight increase in the myotomes of the embryo chick after they have
been kept for 2 to 6 days in coagulated plasma.

Non-muscular organs may also survive a removal from the parent
organism, but the proofs of their survival are more difficult to
establish because of the absence of movements. Carrel (1906) grafted
fragments of vessels that had been in cold storage for several days
upon the course of a vessel of a living animal of the same species; in
1907 he grafted upon the abdominal aorta of a cat a segment of the
jugular vein of a dog removed 7 days previously, also a segment of the
carotid of a dog removed 20 days before; the circulation was
reestablished normally; these experiments have, however, been
criticized by Fleig, who thinks that the grafted fragments were dead
and served merely as supports and directors for the regeneration of the
vessels upon which they were set. In 1909 Carrel removed the left
kidney from a bitch, kept it out of the body for 50 minutes, and then
replaced it; the extirpation of the other kidney did not cause the
death of the animal, which remained for more than a year normal and in
good health, thus proving the success of the graft. In 1910 Carrel
succeeded with similar experiments on the spleen.

Taken altogether, these experiments show that the greater part, if not
all, of the bodily organs are able to survive for more or less time
after removal from the organism when favorable conditions are
furnished. There is no doubt but what the observed times of survival
may be considerably prolonged when we have a better knowledge of the
serums that are most favorable and the physical and chemical conditions
that