The Sign of the Miracle
75
which larval salamanders were living speeded up their regeneration. At
that time, electrical equipment was so primitive that I couldn't rely on
Frazee's results, but I decided to try it for myself. What Sinyukhin had
done with tomato plants I hoped to do with salamanders.
To one group of salamanders I applied 2 microamperes of positive
current from batteries connected directly to the stumps for five to ten
minutes on each of the first five days after amputation. This was
0.000002 ampere, a tiny current by ordinary standards (most household
circuits carry 15 or 20 amperes) but comparable to what seemed to be
flowing in the limb. I intended to reinforce the normal positive peak in
the current of injury. This treatment seemed to make the blastemas
larger but slowed down the whole process somewhat. To another group I
applied 3 microamperes of negative current on the fifth to ninth days,
when the normal currents were hitting their negative peaks. This
seemed to increase the rate of regrowth for a week but didn't change the
time needed for a complete limb. Finally I tried Frazee's method with a
constant current through the aquarium water. Again the results were
equivocal at best. These failures taught me that, before I applied my
findings to other animals, I would have to learn how the current of injury
worked.
Meanwhile, I wrote up my results. Not knowing any better, I sub-
mitted my paper to the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, the most pres-
tigious orthopedic journal in the world. It was a dumb thing to do. The
experiment had no immediate practical application, while the journal
accepted only clinical reports. Moreover, the publication was very politi-
cal; normally you had to have an established reputation or come from
one of the big orthopedic programs, like Harvard or Columbia, to get
into it. Luckily, I didn't know that. Someone thought my paper was
just what the doctor ordered. Not only was it accepted for publication,
but I was invited to present it at the next combined meeting of the
Orthopaedic Research Society and the American Academy of Ortho-
paedic Surgeons, at Miami Beach in January 1961. This invitation was a
particular honor, for it meant someone considered my work so signifi-
cant that practicing physicians, as well as researchers, should hear of it
right then and there. Whoever that someone was, he or she has my
undying gratitude.
My report was well received and soon was published, to the con-
sternation of the local inquisitors and the delight of Chester Yntema.
Since the journal was geared to clinicians. I worried that my experiment
wouldn't
reach the basic researchers with whom I really wanted to share
it, but again I was wrong. The next year I got a phone call from Meryl