In the Soviet Ogonek, Georgi Blok describes a sensational exhibit at a recent
meeting of the Moscow Surgical Society. On the platform close to the guests of
honor stood a large white dog, wagging its tail. From one side of its neck
protruded the head of a small brown puppy. As the surgeons watched,
the puppy's head bit the nearest white ear. The white head snarled.The two-headed dog, no freak of nature, was the latest product of
Surgeon Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov, chief of the organ-transplanting
laboratory of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Demikhov,
says Blok, started in a small way by replacing the hearts of dogs with
artificial blood pumps. Next, he planted a second heart in a dog's
chest, removing part of a lung to make room for it. The extra heart
continued its own rhythm, beating independently of the original heart.After repeating this operation many times, Dr. Demikhov could keep
two-hearted dogs alive for as long as 2 months. Sometimes the original
heart stopped beating first. Then the second heart carried the burden
until it failed too.Encouraged by his successes, Dr. Demikhov tried the reverse operation.
He removed most of the body of a small puppy and grafted the head and
forelegs to the neck of an adult dog. The big dog's heart, as Blok
tells the story, pumped blood enough for both heads. When the multiple
dog regained consciousness after the operation, the puppy's head woke
up and yawned. The big head gave it a puzzled look and tried at first
to shake it off.The puppy's head kept its own personality. Though handicapped by having
almost no body of its own, it was as playful as any other puppy. It
growled and snarled with mock fierceness or licked the hand that
caressed it. The host-dog was bored by all this, but soon became
reconciled to the unaccountable puppy that had sprouted out of its
neck. When it got thirsty, the puppy got thirsty and lapped milk
eagerly. When the laboratory grew hot, both host-dog and puppy put out
their tongues and panted to cool off. After six days of life together,
both heads and the common body died.Dr. Demikhov's two-headed dog, Blok points out, was not a mere stunt. It
was part of a long-range attempt to learn how damaged organs can be
replaced, or how their functions can be performed by mechanical
substitutes.
