Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1911 — NEAR ARTIFIGIAL LIFE [ARTICLE]

NEAR ARTIFIGIAL LIFE

Baltimore Scientist and Wife Have Worked Wonders. Discover Culture of Living Cells In Fluid of Known Chemical Composition Regarded a* Remarkable Accomplishment. Baltimore, Md. —A* a result of constant concentration and untiring efforts in the field of research Dr. Warren H. Lewis and his wife, Mrs. Margaret Reed Lewis, the former an associate professor of anatomy in Johns Hopkins medical school, have discovered th* culture of living cells in a fluid of known chemical composition. Dr. Lewis has been experimenting on the chick In the embryonic condition for some time. By experiment he has finally succeeded in proving that it is possible to cause the growth of cellullar substance, of which all animals and plants are made up. in saline solutions without the aid of nourishment The cells, It Is believed. make use of food stored up within them. This is considered a remarkable accomplishment for which scientific men have striven for years. It was not until about 1830 that the ceil theory was discovered, and since that time there have been many new developments. The theory up to the tlm* of Dr. Lewis’ discovery was that animals and plants generate from preexisting cells and do not rise spontaneously, and this theory has generally been accepted. The object Dr. Lewis had in mind was -the more complete and detailed study of different kinds of cells. For this purpose he took part of the Intestines, heart, liver, eye and brain, and inserted it in solutions of different salts of a known density. He found that cells would frow In distilled water with eight-hundredths of one per cent of salt He also found that the development of the cells would be better if four-hun-

dredths of one per cent of potassium chloride was added to the solution, and still better if some nutrition, such as sugar, was supplied. As a result of his experiments not only did the existing cells enlarge, but the actual formation of new cells took place without the aid of the network that is found in the plasma, which heretofore was considered necessary. Not only the regular formation of muscle fiber was brought about, but also delicate nerve tissue was formed. Dr. Lewis stated that if the specimen under examination was magnified 1,000,000 times the actual growth of the fiber could be seen. There is one further step toward which scientists look,'and that is

abeogenesls, or the spontaneous generation of life. The discovery just made comes closer to the goal sought than any previous one, ind it is believed that before long the definite announcement will some as. to the possibility or impossibility of the generation of life without parents. Dr. Lewis is'a comparatively young man. having held his degree of doctor of medicine for eleven years. He was graduated from the University of Michigan with the degree of bachelor of science in 1894. and received ids doctor's degree from the Johns Hopkins university in 1900. He is a't the present time associate professor of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins medical school.