Alexis Carrel Papers

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) was a noted French surgeon that won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for inventing a method to suture veins.

Carrel was born in 1873 in Lyon, France, and earned an M.D. from the University of Lyon in 1900. In 1902, a trip on a sick train to Lourdes left Carrel in poor standing with the medical community of France. While on this trip, he was named the primary witness of a 'miracle healing.' His refusal to dismiss a supernatural explanation for said miracle led to ostracization among his professional peers, and, along with several career exam failures, ultimately resulted in a move to Canada in 1904. He relocated again from Canada to the United States, still in 1904, shortly after his acceptance of a research position at the University of Chicago. He met Charles Claude Guthrie there, with whom he did the majority of his Nobel Prize winning vascular research.

In 1906, he joined New York City’s Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, where he spent the rest of his professional career. In 1912, Carrel won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for creating and refining a method of suturing veins, based on his collaborative efforts with Guthrie. In addition to vascular surgery, Carrel had a variety of research subjects. These included: organ and tissue transplantation, blood transfusion, tumor and cancer research, cellular senescence, and wound antisepsis.

During the First World War, Carrel served as a Major in the French Army Medical Corps. This experience led him, alongside Henry Drysdale Dakin, to develop the Carrel-Dakin method of antisepsis. The process involved a highly concentrated antiseptic fluid formulated by Dakin and became widely used in wartime hospitals in the absence of antibiotics. Carrel was awarded the French Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur for this advancement.

After World War I, Carrel resumed his research position at the Rockefeller Institute. Carrel continued his experimentation on organ and limb transplantation (particularly on dogs and cats) throughout the 1920s and 1930s and became well known for it through both medical and popular publication. In the 1930s, he joined American airman Charles Lindbergh with the intention of inventing a machine that supported organ removal and then replacement–Lindbergh’s sister-in-law was dying from cancer, but no surgeon would operate due to her presumed inability to survive the removal of her heart, which would have been necessary to treat her. The two developed the Carrel-Lindbergh perfusion pump, colloquially known as the Lindbergh apparatus. This instrument, which allowed for organs to be kept alive for up to weeks, led to the development of the heart-lung machine and other forms of external organ support.

Carrel also continued his experimentation with mice in what he deemed his “mousery experiments.” With these, he tested sarcoma and other forms of cancer, in addition to other variables. He continued until 1939, when he aged out of employment eligibility–the Rockefeller Institute had a strict working age limit of 65. Despite this loss of institutional funding, the surgical and transplantation experiments went on.

Carrel returned to France during the Second World War. In 1937, he joined the Centre d'Etudes des Problèmes Humains, an organization in alignment with the values in his recently published book, “Man, the Unknown” (1935). In 1941, however, Carrel advocated for a new institution, the French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems. He remained in Vichy-led Paris when the war-time government offered support for this. The foundation, over the course of 1941 to 1944, played a significant role in legitimizing occupational medicine, promoting an act that would establish pre-nuptial agreements, and fully created the livret scolaire, which kept record of students academic records to be used for college entry.

After the displacement of the Nazi-collaborative government, officials accused Carrel himself of collaboration, citing his “eugenicist policies” and “connections to the Parti Populaire Français,” France’s fascistic collaborationist political party. He died in November 1944, before he could ever actually stand trial.

Carrel wrote a multitude of research articles and two books, "Man, the Unknown" (1935) and "Voyage to Lourdes" (1950), the latter of which was published posthumously.

Carrel reconnected with Catholicism in his later years. His connection with Trappist monk Alexis Presse led to a reestablishment of belief, and he received his last rites from Presse on his death bed in 1944.

Citations

Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Encyclopedia Online, Nobel Prize Online, Alexis Carrel Papers at Georgetown

Dutkowski, P., De Rougemont, O., and Clavien, P. A. 2008. "Alexis Carrel: Genius, Innovator and Ideologist". American Journal of Transplantation. 8 (10): 1998–2003.

Francois, B., Sternberg, E. M., and Fee, E. 2014. "The Lourdes Medical Cures Revisited". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 69 (1): 135–162.

Jaki, Stanley L. "Library : Two Lourdes Miracles and a Nobel Laureate: What Really Happened?". Catholic Culture. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020.

Redman, Emily. 9 September 2015. "To Save His Dying Sister-In-Law, Charles Lindbergh Invented a Medical Device". Smithsonian Magazine.

Sade, Robert M., MD. Alexis Carrel, Pioneer Surgeon Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

Sade Robert M, MD. 2017. A Surprising Alliance: Two Giants of the 20th Century. Ann Thorac Surg.

Terrenoire, Gwen. 2003. "Eugenics in France (1913–1941) a review of research findings", Joint Programmatic Commission UNESCO-ONG Science and Ethics.