IT WAS in the year 1944 that the historic experiment which was to rock the foundation of man's world actually took place. For the record, let me state this here, so as not to cause any misconceptions.

In that year, for the first time in medical history, human female eggs were fertilized outside the mother's body. This unprecedented feat in experimental biology was accomplished by Dr. John Rock and Dr. Miriam F. Menkin of the Harvard Medical School of Boston and the Fertility Clinic Laboratory, Free Hospital for Women, at Brookline, Mass. If you are still skeptical you may look up their article in Science, August 4, 1944 issue.* (* Published by Science Press, Lancaster, Pa.)

It is true that no child was produced in this classic experiment. Indeed, the fertilization was a purely microscopic event—it never progressed beyond the two-cell division stage. The fertilized egg, not having a mother's womb and a continuous blood supply to nourish it, died on the microscope slide in short order. But a notable beginning had been made. More of this anon.

Before this historic event, man had succeeded in begetting human offspring by, the method known as insemination. No longer was it necessary to perform the marital act in case the wife was, for mechanical reasons, unable to conceive. The husband's (or a donor's) live sperm, injected via syringe into the womb, frequently overcomes the wife's "sterility." A healthy child is the result. The modern practice, mistakenly called "test-tube babies," is widespread nowadays. Pick up any medical journal and read the latest report on insemination. At this late stage, it is unnecessary to add that insemination children are as healthy as those normally begotten.

Astounding Report

I come now to the astounding report of the French Canadian doctor, Professor Cyprien Gagnon of the Dominion Medical College of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. Gagnon, well known for his researches in human embryology, is the discoverer of the Proliferating Bilateral Chromosomes.* (*See his book : Les Chromosomes Proliferes Bilat&ales, Hackette & Cie, Paris, 1943.) Long an experimental biologist, he has been repeatedly decorated, most recently by the French Government—the rare Grand Ordre du Crepuscule en Biologie.

I am now permitted to state that, on February 16, 1945, there was born in Professor Gagnon's laboratory in the city of Trois-Rivieres at 6:05 p.m., the world's first living ectogenetic electronic baby. Born not from the travail of a living human mother, but from a lifeless glass tank. I myself saw this miracle human in 1946, then over 114 years of age, a healthy, robust child.

As an old laboratory associate of the Professor, he has kindly permitted me to release the following facts, hitherto unpublished. Professor Gagnon reluctantly consented to this premature publication of his work only to forestall irresponsible stories in the daily press, because of a known leak through a student on the faculty.

Professor Gagnon had fertilized human female ova (eggs) for several years in vitro (on glass slides). He soon learned to keep them alive for days by nourishing the eggs with the mother's blood.

Gagnon then developed a new and simple method for obtaining actual ova from his wife. Up to then it had been a difficult feat to find human ova. Reason: they are exceedingly minute, many times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. He first built an electronic ovulation detector. He found that when a woman ovulates once a month, the electric potential in the vicinity of the ovary suddenly changes. For that reason the detector—a small disc-like instrument—is strapped over the ovaries. A buzzer or light indicates when actual ovulation occurs. Gagnon then developed a new practical way to extract the live egg. He does not do this by abdominal surgery (the only means known heretofore), but by his ova tractor. No information can be released now about this instrument, because it is still in the patent stage.

The Bulbus

The egg is then placed in a special, soft, highly elastic container, called a bulbus. It is made of a rubberized new plastic, known as transplax. It is transparent and has a somewhat pink color. The bulbus is egg-shaped and is about as large as a duck's egg. At each end, the transplax is much thicker to allow the insertion of a threaded glass or plastic tube 1/4 inch in diameter.

The human egg is introduced through one of the two openings into the interior of the bulbus. Just prior to this, under the microscope, the egg is fertilized by the professor's own spermatozoon, his live sperm. Once the fertilized egg is in the transplax bulbus it immediately attaches itself to the soft, rubberlike inside wall, just as the egg attaches itself to the womb wall after normal conception.

(The description of the artificial gestation that follows is purposely sketchy, since the intricate technical description of the entire complex processes would be of interest only to medical technicians and embryologists.)

Once a human egg is fertilized it will grow in any suitable surrounding, as long as there is the requisite temperature to support life, and the necessary blood supply from which the growing fetus must secure its nutrition. Thus, fertilized eggs grow not only in the womb, hut also in the Fallopian tubes, and in almost any site in the abdominal cavity. True, in the latter two cases, the pregnancy may not come to term, because, in the first, the tube bursts after a number of weeks, and, in the second, some of the woman's organs may become adversely affected. Usually an operation must be performed to save the mother's life. The embryo, too, dies, not because of lack of growth or insufficient nourishment, but for purely mechanical reasons due to the wrong placement and wrong environment.

Note also that, when in the correct environment—the womb—the fertilized egg will grow not only its embryo but also everything necessary to sustain its life up to the point of birth. That includes the placenta, or the afterbirth (organ of nutrition for the fetus) and the umbilical cord with its blood vessels, etc.

Contrary to popular opinion, embryologists point out that there is no direct connection, ever, between mother and embryo. There are no nerves nor blood vessels that pierce the placenta wall. Instead, the •mother's blood and other nourishing fluids enter the placenta by the phenomenon known as osmosis, i.e. diffusion of fluids through thin membranes. If it were not for this circumstance the successful growth of a child outside its mother's body probably would be impossible.

Gagnon's Technique

We understand now that when the fertilized egg is placed in its rubber-like counterpart of the human womb—the bulbus—it has a good chance to survive and grow, which indeed it does, under the perfected Gagnon technique.

To the bulbus are attached next the two threaded tubes aforementioned. One of these carries the mother's blood, oxygen, etc.; the other carries the decarbonizer which helps eliminate the fetus' waste matter and several gases and fluids. These connecting tubes are attached to the proper tanks, electronic pumps, and a number of other electronic and recording instruments.

The bulbus with its fertilized egg is then placed into a closed glass tank, 2 feet long, d'feet high, and 18 inches wide. This tank has double walls like a thermos bottle—and is filled with a special oil. Near the tank there is an electronic radiation heater which keeps the temperature of the oil and bulbus exactly at 98.6 degrees, day and night.

The mother has already donated a pint of her blood. This is first purified, and then placed into a specially constructed thermos flask. Connected to the flask are a number of glass pipes, one of which leads to the bulbus through an appropriate heater. The flask itself is continuously heated to the correct temperature. The blood is forced into the bulbus by means of a small electronic pump. The blood supply must remain constant, increasing in quantity as the unborn child grows.

Mixed into the blood are certain necessary vitamins and chemicals, notably calcium. These extra ingredients keep changing as the artificial pregnancy proceeds, just as in normal pregnancy the chemistry of the mother's nutriment changes from month to month.

The mother donates a fresh pint of blood every three or four weeks, depending upon the growth of the embryo. For this reason the child when born will be all her's exactly as if she had carried it within her own body.

Birth Without Risks

The child will be healthier, will not be marred by forceps (as during difficult births), will not be injured by accidents to the mother, won't have its skull compressed (often with permanent damage) if the woman has too small a pelvis. Moreover, the mother won't have a pregnancy which can sometimes disable and invalidize her. Also there is no painful labor.

As we watch the bulbus week after week, we notice that it grows steadily larger in its synthetic pregnancy. Being made of a highly elastic material, it stretches easily until, at the end of the nine-month term, it will have attained the size of a medium-sized watermelon. Inside there will be the chorion (the outer envelope or membrane of the fetus. Inside the chorion is the fluid (popular name, "the water") in which the fetus floats. There is also the placenta with its cord. The total weight of the loaded bulbus now may be (in case of a single child) from 8 to 15 pounds; much more in case of twins or higher multiple births.

Since the first day of the embryo's life, the glass tank with its oil-submerged bulbus has rested upon a special cradle which at its ends has two steel beams. This comprises a most delicate electronic scale, and operates on the well-known electric condenser principle. An ink stylus continuously traces a recording line on a moving roll of paper. Thus, Dr. Gagnon knows the exact weight of the embryo or fetus at all times. But the professor goes further. Attached to the weight-recording stylus are several levers. If, during any 24 hours, the unborn child's weight increases or decreases unduly, the levers, through a complicated set of gears, will, by electronic means, increase or decrease the normal flow of nourishment. Thus, the embryo (or the fetus) is never overfed nor underfed.

Electronic Safeguards

After the fourth month, a set of elaborate electronic and other devices are switched on to safeguard the rapidly growing fetus. As we all know, this is the time when the unborn child begins to twist and move. Often the motions are violent. Untold times a child may be stillborn through having the umbilical cord wrapped around the neck, strangling it. This can't happen with Gagnon's method. Three different alarms are provided, which go into operation should the fetus happen to move beyond a certain degree.

Finally, there is an automatic motion-picture machine near one end of the tank. It takes one picture every hour-24 a day—till the moment of birth. Thus, there is a complete motion-picture record of the entire gestation for the full nine months. When the child is old enough, he will see himself grow from, nothing to his final birth—a fascinating record to watch on the screen.

Now—the Actual Birth

Now for the actual birth. This is the most prosaic phase of the entire process—an anticlimax. It is too simple! It is also an assisted birth. Dr. Gagnon doesn't wait till the bulbus rips or bursts open, for the good reason that it is not living tissue and might last for many more months.

So, when the fetus has gone the full term—nine months—Gagnon simply stops all electronic apparatus and gadgets. Then the professor lifts off the glass top of the tank and with the help of his wife—who, as a mother, after all should assist in the birth of her own child—rapidly lifts out the bulbus. It is placed on a roll-table covered with a molded rubber sheet. With a blunt pair of surgical scissors he rapidly cuts both the bulbus and chorion envelopes. The light green birth fluid spills over the rubber sheet into a pail. The sheet is removed. Now the child is lifted free and fluids are drained from its mouth and nose. Next it is placed on the table covered with heavy heated towels and blankets. The professor now ties the umbilical cord of his son—(yes, it was a boy) —cuts the cord beyond the tie and dresses the stump.

The birth is over—astonishing in its utter simplicity.

Now for another wonder. Mrs. Gagnon actually will nurse her own child! How is this possible? A week before birth she had been given a series of special Estrogen-BI injections. These have a powerful influence upon the mammary glands—lactation then results.

It is quite natural that at this point you ask: why does Gagnon wish to keep this epoch-making milestone in man's evolution secret?

Ectogenesis

The Church frowned on Professor Gagnon's early experiments. His ecclesiastical advisers exacted a promise from him that should a living child be born he would not attempt to create another one by ectogenesis (reproduction outside the body). He furthermore agreed that the Church would carefully watch the child for thirteen years after birth, till puberty, to make certain that the new revolutionary method would bring perfect children into the world.

For this reason, too, you will not hear anything further about the Gagnon family, nor his work, for several years to come.

THE BACK COVER

Not so long ago the fourth dimension, as imagined by scientists and mathematicians, was supposed to be a sort of hyperspace. In it, matter assumed strange and amazing properties. Thus you could open an orange by turning it inside out, without breaking its skin. Or you could remove a patient's appendix without making an incision.

It remained for Dr. Albert Einstein to change the entire philosophy of the extra dimension. He postu lated that the fourth dimension in fact is Time. Thus a human being—like other solids—has length, breadth, and width, but for every moment of his life, and even in death, he is also in another dimension, Time.

Our back cover shows this graphically, in a surrealistic drawing by Paul and Tina. It shows that matter is continuously immersed in time. The planets, the stars, the entire universe as well, all have a fourth dimension—Time.