Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
About Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
The English version opens with J. B. S. Haldane. The film then shows a heart made to beat, a lung in a tray oxygenating blood, and Sergei Brukhonenko's autojektor, a heart-lung machine of two diaphragm pumps, feeding a severed dog's head that reacts when it is touched. A dog is drained of blood until the heart stops, left for ten minutes, and put on the machine. The film shows the heart and breathing start again and says the dog recovered.
Cast & crew
More about Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
David Yashin directed. Sergei Brukhonenko wrote it and appears in it. Yekaterina Kashina photographed. Alexander Prozorov did the animation. The Russian version runs 19 minutes. The English version, with Haldane's introduction, runs 20 minutes. Wikidata lists 20 minutes and names the studio Tsentrnauchfilm. Released in 1940. The operations use the autojektor Brukhonenko had tried on dogs in 1939.
Themes
Background
The autojektor was an early heart-lung machine, shown here on dogs in 1939 and released as a film in 1940.
Making
Brukhonenko and the surgeon Boris Levinskovsky are the names attached to the operations. The diagrams of heart and lung activity are animation, not the operating room.
Look
Yekaterina Kashina photographed the operating-room scenes. Alexander Prozorov animated the diagram of the dog's heart and lungs stopping.
Technique
The autojektor shown is two linear diaphragm pumps, venous and arterial, exchanging oxygen with a water reservoir, used both on the severed head and on the drained dog.
Preservation
The English version circulates, including copies on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The film does not show the tubes entering the severed head.
- Brukhonenko's page on the experiments says lab records have the dogs living days, not years, and suffering serious brain damage. The film says the revived dog went on in health.
- The same page says the procedures are generally accepted as having been done, while the film is often treated as a restaging because the more disputed shots are not full-frame.
Scenes
- A severed dog's head, on the autojektor, responds to touch.
- Blood is drained until the heart stops. Ten minutes later the machine is filling the dog again.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Experime1940)
- Wikimedia Commons (Experime1940.ogv)