CARREL OF DISCONTENT
by
Sherwyn Warren, MD
Delivered to The Chicago Literary Club
November 8, 1999
In 1909, Dr. Karl Beck, professor of surgery at the University of
Illinois, nominated Dr.
Alexis Carrel for the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for
work done at the Hull
Laboratory of Physiology of the University of Chicago.
Carrel, a surgeon, born and educated in Lyon, France, first saw
Chicago in September, 1904.
He described it as: "The big, dirty city. Heart rendering
impression is the feverish activity of
the crowds, Michigan Avenue, the Lake, the boulevards, the
intersections, the terrible noise of
the elevated metro; the mud, the dirtiness of the streets, the
traffic, the big stores, high
buildings, gray sky, dirty clouds, the heat and humidity."
Carrel had left Lyon for Montreal in the spring of 1904,
discouraged with his prospects for a
surgical career in France and discontented with French medical
politics. Pursuing the
possibilities of life as a farmer or rancher, on August 10, he
undertook a rail journey through
western Canada and the United States. Thereby disenchanted with
agriculture and husbandry,
Carrel decided to stay in the big, dirty city. Two years of
encouragement and opportunity at
the University of Chicago was pivotal on his path to the Nobel
Prize in 1912 and the
century's most significant developments in surgery.
Eldest of three children, Alexis was born in Saint Foy les Lyon
on June 28, 1873 and
baptized Marie Joseph Auguste Carrel Billiard. His father,
Alexis Carrel-Billiard, a well to
do textile merchant, died when the son was five years old. Marie
Joseph Auguste dropped
his baptismal names and became known as Alexis Carrel. His
devout Catholic mother guided
him through a Jesuit education at St. Joseph's Day School and the
University of Lyon Faculty
of Medicine. After passing his final examinations in 1893, he
spent the next two years as an
extern at the Red Cross hospital and the Hospital Antiguaille.
In 1895, he served his one
year of military service in a unit of the mountain troops, the
Chausseurs Alpins. His first
practical surgical experience was gained in the hospitals of
Lyon, principally the Hotel Dieu,
between 1896 and 1900. In 1898 he secured an appointment as a
prosector, in which
capacity he taught anatomy and experimental surgery to students
from the
university.
On June 24,1894, Sadi Carnot, fourth president of the third
French republic, delivered a
speech at an exhibition in Lyon. Sadi was extremely popular with
the French people. Born
in 1837 and educated as an engineer, he was president of the
republic during turbulent times,
a figure of confidence and stability during the French fiasco
involving the Panama Canal,
labor agitation and the anarchist movement. He was retained in
office despite ten changes of
government. Immediately after the speech, Sante Caserio, an
Italian anarchist, rushed up to
Carnot and stabbed him in the abdomen. The blade lacerated the
portal vein. Sadi was
operated on, but surgeons had no techniques for repair of a
lacerated blood vessel, and he
bled to death. National mourning followed; Sadi was buried in
the Pantheon, next to his
grandfather, Lazare Carnot, who was called the "Organizer of
Victory" of the French
revolution,
Carrel, a very junior house officer at this time, questioned why
there were no techniques for
repair of blood vessels. These views, publicly expressed,
irritated his superiors; nevertheless,
Carrel sought laboratory space where he could try ideas and
experiments. He found such
space in the laboratory of Marcel Soulier, a professor of
therapeutics, whose son was his
close friend. There, he worked in complete freedom for many
semesters, developing and
gaining experience in techniques to suture blood vessels, and
reported his results in local
medical journals. Meanwhile, he also prepared his doctoral
thesis, under Professor Poncet, on
cancer of the thyroid. It was favorably received and accepted in
1901. That same year, he
took his clinical exam for a position on the surgical staff under
Poncet. Wait of Marcel
Soulier, a professor of therapeutics, whose son was his close
friend. There, he worked in
complete freedom for many semesters, developing and gaining
experience in techniques to
suture blood vessels, and reported his results in local medical
journals. Meanwhile, he also
prepared his doctoral thesis, under Professor Poncet, on cancer
of the thyroid. It was
favorably received and accepted in 1901. That same year, he took
his clinical exam for a
position on the surgical staff under Poncet. Wait of Marcel
Soulier, a professor of
therapeutics, whose son was his close friend. There, he worked
in complete freedom for
many semesters, developing and gaining experience in techniques
to suture blood vessels, and
reported his result.
In May, 1903, Carrel accepted an invitation from the priest in
charge of the yearly pilgrimage
to Lourdes to travel with the "sick train" and observe the
alleged miracle cures first hand. He
was attracted by stories of the cures at Lourdes and relished the
opportunity, as he later
wrote, to "examine the facts objectively, just as a patient is
examined at a hospital or an
experiment conducted in a laboratory." Most of the so-called
cures he attributed to the
incredible power of suggestion at a pilgrimage. One patient,
however, he could not explain.
An eighteen year old girl, Marie Bailly, appeared gravely ill,
her abdomen seemingly
distended by solid masses with a pocket of fluid beneath her
umbilicus. Her legs were
swollen, her temperature elevated, her pulse and breathing rapid.
Carrel believed she suffered
from tuberculosis peritonitis. When she was brought to the
women's pool, he thought her too
ill to be immersed; he directed that some of the water be
sprinkled on her abdomen. In half
an hour her respiration became less rapid. Suddenly, her abdomen
became flatter. That
evening, she was sitting up in bed and eating. Later that year,
Marie Bailly entered the
religious order of the Daughters of Charity, where she remained
until her death in 1937, at
age fifty-one.
Carrel reported this inexplicable experience to the medical
community in Lyons. His
observations were headlined in newspapers throughout France. He
was attacked on one hand
by the clergy for being skeptical, and on the other by organized
medicine for being gullible.
One of his professors advised him, "My friend, with your ideas
you would do well to give up
the surgical examinations; from now on you will never
pass."
The advice was prophetic. Carrel took the examination, but lost
out again, this time to Rene
Leriche, one of his former students, who became a world-renowned
professor of surgery, with
an interest in vascular surgery; the two retained a lifelong
friendship and affection. This
rejection discouraged Carrel. Though generally appreciated by
his superiors and admired by
his colleagues, he felt increasingly constricted by the
conservative and provincial Lyonnaise
society.
Some months previously, a group of young missionaries, before
leaving for northern French
Canada, came to ask Alexis to instruct them in emergency surgery.
He provided them with
several lectures and demonstrations at Hotel Dieu. Impressed by
his skill and knowledge,
they begged him to accompany them to Canada and share in her
treasures. The fantasy of
adventure intrigued Carrel. After the incidents at Lourdes and
failing his examination, Carrel
pondered his future. He sought advice, solace and comfort from
his adoring mother, then
decided to make a drastic change in his life.
He spent four months in Paris, eschewing the surgical wards,
instead attending lectures in
history, art and music. He returned to Lyon in March, 1904, and
on the sixth of May, left for
Canada, "the France of America, a country of adventure, of the
future." Almost 31 years old,
he bid farewell to his mother, never again to see her alive.
Years later, Carrel maintained
that at the time of his departure, he planned to renounce
medicine completely and take up
ranching.
Notwithstanding, instinct or whatever led him to the Hotel Dieu,
the largest Catholic hospital
in Montreal shortly after his arrival in Canada. He quickly made
the acquaintance of two
surgeons, brothers Adelston and Francois de Martigny. They had
read his scientific reports,
and arranged for him to deliver a paper and give a surgical
demonstration at the Second
Medical Congress of the French Language of North America in
Montreal. These caused a
sensation. Several surgeons from the United States attended,
including Chicagoan Karl Beck.
He proposed that Carrel come to Chicago. The Matigny brothers
wanted him to remain in
Montreal, but could find no suitable facilities for him.
Adelston Matigny wrote to a friend at
the University of Chicago about Carrel, "He would reflect a
certain glory upon the university
whose professor had performed such marvelous, almost impossible
operations. He does have
some income and would not seek a practice." The letter was
transmitted to George N.
Stewart, head of the department of Physiology at the University
of Chicago.
Carrel spent his first two months in Chicago improving his
English, exploring the city, giving
surgical lectures and meeting prominent local surgeons. In
November 1904 he was offered
two positions, one at the University of Illinois under Dr. Beck,
and another in the Hull
Laboratory of Physiology at the University of Chicago under Dr.
Stewart.
He accepted the latter position and was assigned to work with Dr.
Charles C. Guthrie, who
was six years younger and only four years out of medical school.
Carrel supplied most of the
imagination and energy, and performed most of the experiments,
especially since Guthrie was
on sabbatical leave for the nine months between February and
December 1905. Carrel
depended upon Guthrie to help with his writing and speaking,
since his English was not yet
fluent. In the 22 months between November 1904 and August 1906,
they jointly wrote 21
papers.
In April 1905 Carrel was invited by Dr. Harvey Cushing, chairman
of its department of
surgery, to give a lecture at Johns Hopkins Medical School in
Baltimore. This lecture was
well attended, enthusiastically received and excerpts were widely
reported. Carrel then visited
medical institutions in Philadelphia and New York. In the fall
of 1905, Cushing and other
distinguished surgeons visited the Hull Laboratory, where Carrel
demonstrated his pioneering
surgical techniques.
Carrel's greatest frustration at Chicago was lack of financial
support for his research. He was
offered a clinical professorship, but declined because he did not
want to have to support his
experimental work by clinical practice. He was offered a
position at Johns Hopkins and
another at the Rockefeller Institute. In May 1906, he wrote to
his brother: "I received a letter
from the Director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research in New York telling me
that I had been named to a post there by the last Assembly of
Directors. It was the
immediate result of my lecture at Johns Hopkins and my visit to
New York. The Rockefeller
Institute is, though bigger and richer, similar to the Pasteur
Institute in Paris. Besides,
everything is absolutely new there because it has only been open
for 15 days. I am going to
accept immediately although it disgusts me to live in New York.
New York is entirely built
of high, high buildings and it seems that one is in prison, as in
Lyon, for example. I will go
there in September."
The Rockefeller Institute for Medical research, incorporated in
1901, was proposed to John D.
Rockefeller by his executive director of philanthropy, Frederick
T. Gates, a Baptist minister.
Gates had recommended Rockefeller's gift of $600,000 to the
University of Chicago in 1889
in order to "improve the level of education in the Midwest." In
1897, he concluded that the
scientific study of medicine was "woefully neglected." Gates and
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
persuaded the elder Rockefeller to establish a medical research
institute. Simon Flexner,
professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania, was
selected as director in June
1902. In 1905, with a new institute under construction, he met
and was so impressed by
Carrel that he offered him extensive laboratory space on the top
floor of the main building for
an Experimental Surgery Department.
Carrel moved to New York and rented a small apartment where he
could walk to his
laboratory. He was physically rather short, of medium build,
balding, with close-cropped
hair. He possessed small, piercing eyes, one brown and one blue,
not easily noticeable
because of thick lenses he wore for myopia. He has been
described as intense, not unsociable
but distant. He felt rejected by and disdainful of the French
medical establishment,
characterizing it as "bureaucratic, decadent, too ignorant to
plan for the future." These
opinions he freely expressed even during his summer vacations in
France.
In October 1912, Carrel learned that he had been awarded the
Nobel Prize. He was uncertain
whether or how he should accept. Each honoree is introduced by a
representative of his
government. Carrel did not want to be introduced by the French
government; he chose
instead to be introduced by the American ambassador to Sweden.
The Nobel Prizes are presented by the King of Sweden on December
10, the anniversary of
the death of Alfred Nobel, in a solemn ceremony at the Royal
Academy of Music. The
presentation speech by Professor J. Akerman of the Royal Caroline
Institute was a model of
diplomacy. This is an abridged version:
"Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen. The
staff of professors of
the Royal Caroline Institute has awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine to Doctor
Alexis Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute, New York, for his
work on suturing of vessels and
transplantation of organs.
"The search has been going on for a long time for methods of
closing a wound in the wall of
a blood vessel without interrupting the circulation of blood,
and, if the vessel were cut in two,
of reuniting the edges of the wound so as to restore the
circulation. Alexis Carrel was the
first person, as a result of work begun some ten or twelve years
ago in Lyon, to invent a
reliable method of sewing vessels together again. The French
doctor, when he made a suture,
enlarged the opening using three retaining stitches located at
equidistant points which
converted the round opening into a triangular one, following
which he stitched the walls
together again edge to edge with fine silk threaded on to
ordinary needles, which were very
fine and round.
"This method proved to be reliable and effective insofar as it
protects against post-operative
hemorrhages and embolisms, but its greatest merit was that it did
not produce stricture at the
site of suture. From the time of his first publication-in `Lyon
Medical' of 1902-Carrel was
able to describe attempts at replacing and reconstructing
sections of damaged vessels as well
as transplantation of whole organs to a different place in the
same animal or from one animal
to another. In the course of his activities at the Hull
Laboratories in Chicago, and at the
Rockefeller Institute of New York, he continued to experiment and
perfect his method. He
showed that suturing the ends of two vessels can be carried out
not only on relatively large
vessels but also those with a diameter less than that of a match.
He succeeded in replacing a
section of artery with a vein, he patched up holes in the wall of
a vessel. Results proved
satisfactory when examined months and years later.
"So that he would always have material at his disposal for
repairing sections of vessel, Carrel
experimented with the preservation and use of such sections.
"Carrel was able to restore the circulation in complete organs
which he had excised, or had
replaced with other similar organs removed from another animal.
Arteries and veins are
sewed to arteries and veins of the organ. The blood will then
circulate by its normal routes
through the transplanted organ, whose cells-once the circulation
is resumed-carry on living
and functioning as before. In this way, half the thyroid gland,
the spleen, ovaries, one
kidney, both kidneys even, could be transplanted from one animal
to another or cut out and
sewn back in their old place, still surviving and fulfilling the
task required of each organ in
the body's economy. Carrel also replaced an animal's paw with
one taken from another
animal, and put an amputated limb back; he saw the limb survive
and knit back with the
body.
"Many surgeons have already resorted to Carrel's techniques for
healing local lesions in
vessels. This method has also been used in blood
transfusions.
"Carrel further showed that it was possible to divert the
circulation in an organ, even in one
of the limbs, thus facilitating or reestablishing the flow of
blood. Where arteriosclerosis, for
example, was obstructing the flow of blood in the leg arteries,
reversion of the circulation has
been tried, and, in a fair number of cases, it has been possible
to avoid, even to cure, the
onset of gangrene in the leg.
"On the other hand, the experiments in which Carrel has
successfully transplanted whole
organs or limbs from one animal to another have not found
application in man. For one
thing, healthy kidneys, spleens and limbs are hardly ever
available to the surgeon, and, for
another, the experience we have gained with animals has taught us
that organs transplanted
from one animal to another usually degenerate in their new owner.
"Doctor Carrel, the Caroline Institute has awarded you this
year's Nobel Prize for Medicine
for your work on the suture of vessels and organ transplantation.
Sir, you have achieved great things.
"The clear, bright intelligence which was the patrimony you
received from your country-from
France, in whose debt humanity stands for so much that is
valuable-was allied to the bold,
resolute energy of your adopted country, and these marvelous
operations, of which I have just
spoken, are the manifest result of this happy collaboration."
Carrel was the second individual associated with the University
of Chicago to win a Nobel
Prize. The first was Albert Michelson, awarded the prize in
physics in 1907. Of the 70
Nobel Prizes awarded to individuals associated with the
University of Chicago, 11 have been
for Physiology or Medicine.
Besides the $40,000 Nobel award, Carrel was honored by the French
government with the
Legion of Honor in February 1913. His former colleagues in Lyon
asked him to deliver a
lecture in the great amphitheater of the Faculty of Medicine.
President William Howard Taft
sent a congratulatory telegram and spoke at a ceremony in his
honor. The New York Medical
Journal observed, "This is the first time the prize has been
given for researches in medicine in
this country." At 39, Carrel was the youngest Nobel Prize
laureate.
He sailed back to New York almost immediately to resume his work.
His routines and habits
were strenuous, orderly and disciplined. He stayed aloof from
the general life of the Institute.
Many colleagues considered him arrogant. His work required
asepsis and sterility. He did
not like bright light so he painted the walls of his laboratory
dark gray, used black linen for
his operations and outfitted his assistants in black surgical
gowns, masks and caps. This was
at a time when white was the usual color, and Carrel wore a
distinguishing white, cotton,
knitted cap.
Rockefeller Institute allowed for an annual vacation. Carrel
spent each summer in France,
part of the time at a chateau near Lyon that his mother had
purchased in 1901. He also
returned each August to Lourdes. There, in 1910, he met Anne
Marie Meyrie, a 35-year-old
nurse and widow, who was born into an aristocratic family.
Alexis and Anne Marie saw each
other the next two summers. In 1912, they visited the Carrel
family in Lyon and Alexis
spoke of marriage. Anne Marie did not like the idea of changing
her lifestyle, leaving France
and subordinating herself to her husband's career. She demurred
a decision at that time, but
the two officially became engaged the following summer and made
plans for a wedding in
December. A civil ceremony was held in Paris December 26, 1913,
followed by a religious
ceremony at the Church of Saint Pierre du Gros. They sailed for
New York the following
day. Anne Marie was a complete surprise to Carrel's friends and
co-workers in New York;
they had no hint of any romantic interest, much less matrimonial
plans.
The Carrels rented a home in Garden City. Madam Carrel utilized
her nursing skills and
became part of the experimental surgery team. In June, 1914,
they sailed to France for their
annual vacation. They spent July at a chateau owned by Anne
Marie's family, in the province
of Anjou.
On August 1, 1914, Alexis, still a French citizen, received
mobilization orders. World War I
broke out in mid August. Carrel was posted to the old Hotel Dieu
in Lyon, treating war
wounds. Gas gangrene was a serious problem. He tried to
persuade local authorities to
provide him facilities and assistants for organized experiments
to improve treatment. They
refused. With the intercession of James Hazen Hyde, an
influential American, he obtained an
interview with the national inspector general for health
services. Carrel was sent to inspect
military surgical facilities. He wrote a critical report,
recommending uniform standards of
treatment and requesting a hospital near the front lines where he
could do research. He was
allowed to establish a hospital at Compiegne, 12 kilometers from
the front lines. Madam
Carrel worked as a nurse and administrator. No funds were
allotted for research.
Undaunted, Carrel obtained a grant from the Rockefeller
Foundation. With Simon Flexner's
help, he recruited an outstanding English chemist, Henry Dakin to
collaborate with him.
Dakin formulated and tested over two hundred antiseptic solutions
for wound irrigation. He
settled on hypochlorite of soda, modified so that it lost most of
its irritating tendency, yet
retained its germicidal quality. Meanwhile, Carrel was working
out methods of applying this
agent to serious wounds. By late spring of 1915, they had
developed the Carrel-Dakin
technique of wound management.
Carrel promulgated his treatment method to the military
authorities. His solution is still a
standard for wound irrigation.
The wartime experience affected Carrel. He wrote: "War is
something much more frightening
and absurd than I had thought. Men die with unequal courage.
Women and mothers don't
complain. The spectacle that our hospital represents these days
is at the same time deplorable
and heroic. For a long time I hated to believe the atrocities
committed by the Germans in
Belgium. Today I am sure that they were committed in a fashion
even more barbarous than
the wild tribes in Central Africa."
The Carrels returned to New York after the armistice to a hero's
welcome. The United States
Army awarded Alexis a Distinguished Service Certificate. His
Department of Experimental
Surgery received additional space and equipment. He plunged into
his work with his usual
intensity. The Carrels resided in a downtown hotel. Initially,
Anne Marie accompanied
Alexis on trips to medical meetings, but soon began to spend
increasingly more time in
France.
In 1922, the Carrels purchased a home on the tiny island of St.
Gildas, off the coast of
Brittany in France, using Nobel Prize award money. This became
their beloved retreat, where
they spent most of each summer. Each September, Alexis returned
to New York by ship. As
Anne Mare spent less and less time in New York, Alexis eventually
rented a small penthouse
apartment that overlooked Central Park, and where he lived in
almost monastic simplicity.
His main diversion was dinner with several prominent and
intellectual friends. Nights were
spent reading, studying, writing and reflecting. To escape the
pressures of New York, he
periodically withdrew for several days to a rustic hideaway
resort.
Carrel's research interests broadened. He developed methods of
growing both normal cells
and cancer cells in Carrel flasks, a variant of test tubes, and
studied the influence of various
factors on their growth. In 1912, he had begun culture of cells
from a chick embryo heart.
He turned this culture line over to Albert H. Eberling, a
laboratory assistant, who maintained
it for many thousands of generations, until April, 1946, first at
the Rockefeller Institute, then
at Lederle Laboratories. Carrel's surgical interests extended
to preserving organs outside the
body, seeking ways to prevent organ rejection and the audacious
idea of growing whole
organs from single cells. He worked to develop a mechanical
perfusion pump to nourish
whole organs in an artificial chemical environment.
In 1929, the interests of two prominent people intersected.
Charles Lindberg's sister-in-law,
Elizabeth Morrow, was left with severe disease of the heart
valves after acute rheumatic
fever. Lindberg asked her doctor why her heart could not be
repaired by surgery. When told
that the heart could not be stopped long enough for surgeons to
work on it, Lindberg
questioned why a mechanical pump could not be used for
circulating the blood while the
heart was stopped. A physician friend introduced him to Carrel.
Lindberg asked to became a
volunteer assistant in Carrel's laboratory and work on the
perfusion pump. By 1935, the
pump was able to keep the thyroid gland of a cat alive for
eighteen days. Cells of that gland
were then successfully transferred to tissue culture. Time
magazine's cover of July 1, 1935
pictured Carrel and Lindberg with their "mechanical
heart."
In 1938, Lindberg and Carrel published a book, The Culture of
Organs. The Lindberg pump
was a popular exhibit at the New York World's Fair in 1939. It
was a flop for its intended
purpose, extra-corporeal circulation for heart surgery. John
Gibbons, of the University of
Pennsylvania, first achieved this in 1953. His heart-lung
machine was based on completely
different mechanical principles.
From the collaboration, the Lindberg and Carrel families
developed an enduring friendship.
In 1938, the Lindbergs bought the island of Illiec, near St.
Gildas, so they could spend
summers together. Lindberg described St. Gildas as "a small
island. Massive tides, ebbing
and flowing through a range of forty feet, now separate it from,
now connect it to the
mainland. There are times when one can neither walk nor cross by
boat. It has a weird,
austere and kaleidoscopic beauty."
Carrel enjoyed increasing celebrity. The movie "Frankenstein"
with Boris Karloff, based on
Mary Shelley's book, was released in 1931 and was a popular
success. The public became
intrigued with a living scientist who had bold ideas for growing
and exchanging human body
parts. The popular press publicized Carrel's activities, with
such wild imagination as the
suspense radio program, "The Beating Heart," about growing
artificial organs in the
laboratory. He was both flattered and annoyed by the notoriety.
His friends encouraged him
to write a book for laymen summarizing his knowledge and
understanding of biology and
humanity.
Carrel spent most of 1933 writing the book in French. The
English translation required
almost as much attention. Entitled, Man the Unknown, it was a
huge success. It sold
900,000 copies, was translated into 19 different languages and
was "number one" on the New
York Times non-fiction best-seller list for 1936.
Carrel's preface begins: "The author of this book is not a
philosopher. He is only a man of
science. He spends a large part of his time in a laboratory
studying living matter. And
another part in the world, watching human beings and trying to
understand them. He does
not pretend to deal with things that lie outside the field of
scientific observation. He has tried
to confine all his knowledge of man within the pages of a small
book. Before beginning this
work the author realized its difficulty, its almost
impossibility. He undertook it merely
because somebody had to undertake it."
The book lucidly presents biology. Regarding transplantation,
Carrel writes: "The
individuality of tissues may manifest itself in the following
way: Fragments of skin, some
supplied by the patient himself and others by a friend or
relative, are grafted on the surface of
a wound. After a few days, the grafts coming from the patient
are adherent to the wound and
grow larger, whereas those taken from other people loosen and
grow smaller. One rarely
finds two individuals so closely alike that they are able to
exchange tissues. However,
between identical twins, glandular transplantation would
doubtless succeed."
The first successful kidney transplant was performed between
identical twins by James
Murray of Boston in 1954.
Some of Carrel's generalizations clearly do lie "outside the
field of scientific observation."
Three brief examples:
"Women who have no children are not so well balanced and become
more nervous than the
others. It is therefore absurd to turn women against maternity.
The same intellectual and
physical training and the same ambitions should not be given to
young girls as to
boys."
"Clairvoyance and telepathy are primary datum of scientific
observation."
"We must not forget that the most highly civilized races are
white. In France, the populations
of the north are far superior to those of the Mediterranean
shores."
Carrel's reputation muted criticism from the scientific
community. Many scientists at the
Rockefeller Institute were embarrassed by and critical of
opinions and ideas presented in the
book, reinforcing their judgements of Carrel as arrogant, bigoted
and eccentric. Historian
George W. Corner, who wrote The History of the Rockefeller
Institution in 1965, described
Carrel as "not a profound analyst but rather a superb applied
scientist, advancing the progress
of biology and surgery much as Thomas Edison advanced the
practical use of
electricity."
In 1939, Simon Flexner retired as director of the Rockefeller
Institute. Herbert Spencer
Gasser, who replaced him, did not share Flexner's admiration for
Carrel. On July 1, 1939,
shortly after he became 65, Carrel's Division of Experimental
Surgery was disbanded and his
laboratory was closed. Carrel wrote five articles for the
Readers Digest. His seminal works
on vascular surgery, heart surgery, organ transplantation, tissue
culture and cancer
chemotherapy already filled the scientific literature.
In July 1939, Alexis and Anne Marie sailed for France. Alexis
intended to return to New
York in mid-September. World War II broke out September 1. The
Carrels remained in
France. Alexis wanted to establish an experimental surgical
laboratory. On March 22 1940,
France accepted armistice terms from Germany. Carrel went to New
York May 28 to work
on a design for mobile hospitals. Madam Carrel refused to leave
St. Gildas.
In February, 1941, Carrel returned to Europe with James Wood
Johnson to bring vitamins to
children's hospitals in occupied France. They landed in Lisbon
and traveled through Spain
and France, witnessing dreadful suffering, privation and
starvation. Carrel undertook the
study of the effects of famine on the population. While in Aix
en Provence, he was informed
that his wife was ill. He immediately rushed to St. Gildas to
nurse her back to health.
Numerous letters and telegrams implored him to return to the
United States, but Anne Marie
refused to leave France, and Alexis refused to leave Anne
Marie.
Carrel's sentiments and activities during World War II are
controversial. He has been accused
of collaboration during the German occupation, but no irrefutable
evidence was presented.
He was not an isolationist, like his friend Lindberg, who
characterized him as, "a deeply
patriotic Frenchman, decorated and damned, often by the same
people." Although he
condemned Nazism, he worked with Nazi occupation officials as
well as the French
occupation government.
Carrel proposed to the Vichy occupation government, formation of
one of his long-held
ambitions, an "Institute of Man," which, of course, he would
head. Marshal Henri Philippe
Petain, head of the government, embraced the proposal. Most
medical officers on his staff
ridiculed it. Named, "The French Foundation for the Study of
Human Problems," it was
sanctioned by law in November 1941, and funded with the
equivalent of eight million dollars.
Carrel assembled a staff of philosophers, psychologists,
psychiatrists, architects, political
scientists, economists, anthropologists, biologists and
physiologists to "Research all practical
solutions and proceed with demonstrations with the view of
improving the psychological,
mental and social conditions of the population."
The foundation, based in Paris, conducted studies in such areas
as child development,
work-related illnesses, fatigue and work psychology. Madam
Carrel conducted experiments in
her areas of interest: parapsychology, hypnosis, mental telepathy
and extra-sensory perception.
Carrel probably tried to avoid political involvement;
nevertheless, he dealt with Vichy
government officials as well as German occupation officials.
Extra food and fuel rations
were offered to the Carrels, but they refused special privilege.
Both lost weight and their
general health declined.
In August 1943, while at St. Gildas, Carrel suffered a heart
attack and went into heart failure.
Both medical care and food were inadequate and he was rushed by
canoe, auto and train to
Paris, where he was hospitalized for several weeks. Diligent
treatment improved his
condition enough so he was able to resume his previous routine.
In August 1944, however,
he suffered a second, more serious episode. Left too ill to
leave his apartment in Paris, he
spent most of the time recumbent in a lounge chair.
By then, the Allied armies had liberated France. A new French
government had taken over.
Valery Radot was appointed minister of health. Carrel had
denounced Radot, when the latter
was head of the Pasteur Institute. Radot suspended Carrel from
the Foundation and set up a
"purging" committee to determine the extent of his collaboration.
The media denounced
Carrel as, "a racist, a Nazi apologist and Nazi eugenicist."
Police invaded his home to
prevent him from leaving.
On October 18, 1944, a letter from a visitor reported: "I have
just been seeing Madam Carrel.
Doctor Carrel is down and cannot speak. She believes he will die
in two or three days. His
heart is so soft you can just feel it. His face is
changed."
Alexis Carrel died at 71 years of age on the morning of November
5, 1944. Nine hours later
the French radio reported that Dr. Alexis Carrel had fled his
home to avoid standing trial for
collaborationist activities. Five hours after that announcement,
they acknowledged their error
and reported his death.
In accordance with his wishes, Alexis Carrel lies buried in the
Chapel of St. Yves near his
house on St. Gildas. Also in accordance with his wishes, his
papers are preserved in the
archives of an American university ("because America had given me
the opportunity for
untrammeled research"), and in an institution administered by
Jesuits ("because priests of that
religious order had guided my early education"). They are
collected in the library of
Georgetown University.
Scientist and mystic, in death as in life, discontent and
ambivalence have dispersed Alexis
Carrel: his ideas and work are in America, but his heart remains
in France.