1935

Alexis Carrel’s successful use of his perfusion device, and was constructed and refined by Charles Lindberg (who developed the perfusion pump). In April, Carrel kept a cat’s thyroid alive and infection-free for 2.5 weeks; it was “the first time anyone had ever sustained an entire organ outside the body,” and after the experiment, Carrel began envisioning the possibility of human immortality, suggesting the desirability of killing the worst and keeping the best of the human race, as in the breeding of dogs. These views were echoed in his “impressively offensive book” of 1935, Man, the Unknown. “In it, Carrel expanded on the importance of propagating the best elements of his ‘great race’ (Chaddock, 193-194).