are being used there upon human subjects and with considerable success, but no official reports have yet been made of the result of these experiments, nor will they be given to the world until about the first of June.

Meanwhile, in the same institute, Dr.

FIG. 1

FIG. 2

CELL MULTIPLICATION IN BLOOD PLASMA These cells grew in chicken blood, but were short-lived. Fig. 1, after three hours incubation. Fig. 2, after thirty-four hours.

Nathan C. Foot is making some interesting experiments with human and chicken blood in order to discover the genesis of blood formation. His experiments with chicken marrow, with the same end in view, were quite satisfactory, and he has been able to grow primitive blood ves

sels. Though they were short-lived, they are an indication of what may yet be done in this new field of research.

During the past year Dr. Carrel has greatly improved his technique and now reports that he has been able to study quantitatively the influence of tissue juices on the growth of connective tissue and some of the characteristics of their activating power. The culture medium was composed of one volume tissue extract and two volumes of plasma, or blood less the corpuscles. Some of the extract was obtained by the centrifugalization of embryonic tissue after it had been mixed with Ringer solution, which consists of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and calcium chloride. The experiments were very successful. One of the strange facts demonstrated by them was that the acceleration of cellular growth was much more marked when the mixture of tissues and Ringer solution was allowed to stand in the refrigerator for several days before being centrifugalized than on being used a few minutes before that operation. In other words the much condemned cold storage system is not only very favorable to the preservation of tissue, but it is an actual aid to cell growth!

"For instance," to quote Dr. Carrel's own words, "in experiment 1734, Ringer solution containing embryonic pulp had been preserved for twenty days in cold. storage before being centrifugalized. In twenty-four hours the area of new connective tissue was thirty times larger in the cultures containing the extract than in the controls. The extracts of tissues, cut into small fragments, mashed and frozen, were generally very active.

As to the application of these frozen extracts in the healing of wounds, it was proved that they were able to increase the growth of connective tissue forty times! In other words a deep knife cut, which under normal aseptic conditions would heal in two weeks, would heal by the new system in eight hours, while a leg fracture ordinarily requiring forty days to knit would unite and be cured in a day!

But while freezing accelerates the operation of the extracts and the growth of cellular tissue, heat quickly reduces their activity. When heated to 56 de

grees centigrade for ten minutes, the extracts began to lose much of their power; and when heated to 70 degrees. centigrade, they lost it completely.

Not only does the life essence contained in animal cells retain its active principle in a freezing temperature, but it was found by Dr. Carrel that it did not lose its power when put through filter paper. On the contrary if the extract contained much cellular débris, the filtration slightly increased its power.

Dr. Carrel believes that his discoveries will be useful not only in determining the growth of tissues, but also in throwing light upon the unknown laws of cell dynamics. Although he is extremely conservative in his statements as to their application to the healing of wounds in human bodies, a prominent vivisectionist tells me that there can be no doubt as to such healing, for if it will operate effectively in the case of a dog or a cat, as reported by Carrel, it certainly will operate effectively in the case of a human. being.

Nor is there any doubt as to the relative effectiveness in the matter of fractures. The repair of a broken bone by natural processes begins as soon as the first excitement has passed off. At first a fluid is effused around the fragment which in a short time becomes converted into bone. This fluid is the lymph which is Nature's first aid to the injured. The hardening of the lymph makes the bone. If the fragments be far apart, a great deal of lymph is thrown out to form new bone; but if they be close together, there is not so much of it. By. the introduction of the foreign animal extract used by Dr. Carrel, bone growth is greatly stimulated and the periosteum, or outside layer of bone, is thickened and extended.

To what extent this system may yet be adopted by surgeons can only be guessed at but it is safe to predict that if onehalf the beneficial results indicated by Dr. Carrel can be realized, the new system of quick bone-mending will be universally adopted.

Dr. Carrel is thirty-nine years old, French, and alert. Not content with the proud achievements which have won for him so many honors, this daring explorer of new medical fields is now attempting to translate death into life. In other words he will transplant nerves and organs of dead animals into live ones. If his experiments are successful, as he has every reason to believe they will be, science will have attained its age-long dream of bridging death with a chain of neverending life. Well may the world hold its breath while this tremendously ambitious work is going on; for the bridging of death with life can mean but one thing and that is immortality.

But in this baffling problem of life eternal-the problem which fired the imaginations of Milton, of Swedenborg, and of Lytton-perhaps the poet will still retain pre-eminence and the materialistic vivisectionist will be left behind. For one thing, however, we may be thankful: In a few years from now, perhaps in a

few months, the old man whose thigh-bone snaps on the icy pavement may suffer but a brief inconvenience from his injury, all humanity with its breakable bones and its separable tissues will be saved incalculable suffering by reason of Dr. Carrel's careful application and extension of the wonderful discoveries of the Loebs and of Harrison in the artificial growth of cellular tissue and the consequent stimulation of the reparative proc

esses.

W®

ITH the completion of the Panama Canal definitely in sight, American capitalists and prospective settlers have begun to look toward the Isthmus as a promising field for investment and enterprise. All things considered, no region in Latin-America offers stronger attractions or more favorable prospects for citizens of the United States. The Government of Panama welcomes Americans, and the people in general are well-disposed toward them.

With an area only slightly less extensive than that of Cuba, the isthmian republic is endowed with natural resources superior to those of the island, except in the matter of minerals. Panama enjoys a singularly healthful climate. The average temperature in the interior is about seventy degrees, with extreme variations of not more than fifteen degrees in either direction.

The laws affecting investors and immigrants are liberal to the point of generosity. Foreign corporations engaging in industrial enterprises may import machinery, stock, and supplies, free of duty, and will be exempt from taxation for a period of five or more years. Settlers may take up public land wherever they please, at a cost of one dollar per acre. One-half is payable at the time of taking possession; the other half, four years later. All the towns and villages in the provinces lying along the Pacific seaboard, to the west of the Canal Zone, are connected by good cart roads, telephone and telegraph wires. A line of coasting steamers makes regular calls weekly, or more often, at the ports of the same provinces, and a bill authorizing the con

struction of a railroad to traverse them has been passed by the Assembly.

The available opportunities for industrial enterprise in Panama may be classified as those requiring a large amount of capital; those which may be successfully conducted upon a moderate investment; and those which are open to the individual with from fifteen hundred to five thousand dollars at his command.

The first division includes sugar, lumber, and rubber. So far, the second of these has attracted the greatest amount of capital. There are at present seven companies holding timber tracts, varying from 25,000 to 200,000 acres in extent. All but one of these are located near the southern coast of the province of Darien. Three of the corporations in question are operating, one of them having recently installed an equipment of steam tugs and lumber barges, with which their_output can be towed across the bay of Panama to Balboa, the Pacific terminus of the Canal.

The forests of Panama contain both hard and soft commercial woods. More or less mahogany is found everywhere, in some places running to an average of three trees to the acre over a considerable area. Cedars predominate, there being six or seven varieties of this family. Other valuable trees are also found.

By far the greater portion of the Panama forests lies inland, upon the mountain slopes, and is difficult of access. There are, however, rich tracts in the vicinity of the coast-not only in Darien, but also in Veraguas and Los Santoswhich have not yet been taken up.

The rubber tree is indigenous to the Isthmus of Panama and is found in a

wild state throughout its forests. Three companies are cultivating it extensively. One of these, which owns, under an old Spanish grant, an estate covering forty square miles, is developing a plantation which promises to become one of the largest in the world within the next ten years. There are, in different parts of the country, several individuals cultivating rubber in tracts of a few hundred acres. These ventures are usually profitable, especially when combined with the production of some crop yielding quicker and more certain returns.

The manufacture of sugar by modern methods necessitates the employment of extensive capital. A mill designed to handle 100,000 bags in a crop season will cost $1,000,000, more or less. Land, field, railroad, wharves, and running expenses would call for an additional investment of $250,000.

At present, sugar-cane is cultivated in Panama only in small patches and by the crudest of methods. Nevertheless, fields yield twelve successive crops, without replanting, of a gross weight which is equaled only in Hawaii, with the aid of irrigation and fertilizers. No attempt has ever been made to improve the plant, and it is practically certain that selection and cross-breeding would produce a better variety.

The cultivation of cane and the manufacture of sugar on a large scale would appear to offer one of the most promising opportunities in Panama. Excellent land, such as would cost from $25 to $80 in Cuba, and considerably more in Hawaii,

may be purchased in Panama at one dollar per acre. It is not improbable that the moderate investment necessary for the production of a low grade article would yield good returns. There are ready markets for the muscavado quality in South America, China, and other Oriental countries.

The enterprises which may be entered upon and successfully conducted with capital ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 are the raising of cattle, the cultivation of cocoanuts, cacao, and coffee. With the exception of the last-named, suitable land for any of these can be had from the Government at the ordinary price of public lands. It will need to be cleared at an average cost of five dollars an acre. The expense of further preparation will depend upon the use for which it is designed.

Save for one obstruction, Panama would be an ideal country for cattle raising on extensive lines. The drawback is found in the fact that all the cattle in the Republic are not sufficiently numerous to constitute what is considered a goodsized outfit in the States. A substantial protective import duty renders it impracticable to ship in steers for stocking purposes. This condition makes the industry an unusually favorable one for the man of modest means.

Cocoanuts and cacao are generally considered to be the most profitable of all tropical crops. An investment of $5,000 in a plantation of either will yield a net profit of $2,000 or more, in the seventh year, with a steady increase an

nually thereafter for an indefinite period, provided ordinary trouble is taken to renew the plantation and keep it in good condition. The planter will be obliged to wait for six or seven years for his first crop from cocoanuts, cacao, or coffee. This disadvantage may be mitigated by

ONE OF THE PICTURESQUE FEATURES OF THE ISTHMUS-
AN OLD CHURCH AT DAVID. FAMOUS FOR
ITS DETACHED TOWER

THE HOME OF A SMALL AMERICAN FARMER IN AN UPLAND VILLAGE

raising quick crops in the meanwhile, such as bananas, pineapples, or tobacco.

Four or five producing cacao plantations are on the Isthmus, whose output sells at the highest prices in the London market. The cultivator of cacao in Panama has an important advantage over men similarly engaged in most other regions where the plant grows. The Pacific slope of the Isthmus is never visited by hurricanes, whereas, in Trinidad, San Thomé, the West Indies, and other cacao producing countries, wind storms destroy about one crop in every five.

There is in the valley of the Boquete, lying at an elevation of about 1,800 feet, a colony of Americans and British who are engaged in the cultivation of coffee. The product is distinctly high grade and commands from 15 to 20 cents wholesale in the local markets. Shipments made to New York and London have met with favorable reception, but as the domestic demand is considerably in excess of the total production in the Republic, there is no inducement to export.

The cheapness of land and of labor make it possible for a man with no more than two or three thousand dollars at his disposal to settle in Panama with a prospect of making a comfortable living in