Before Dr. Alexander Fleming invented penicillin, Dr. Carrel developed the Dakin Solution, a type of hypochlorite solution made from diluted bleach and applied to decrease skin irritation. Chlorine, the active ingredient in Dakin’s solution, is a potent antiseptic that kills most forms of bacteria and viruses. This simple solution saved many men in World War they still use it and when people are out in the wild, far from critical care centers and hospitals.
Carrel though had already won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1912 for his experimental, and ultimately successful work, on vascular suturing & the grafting of blood vessels and organs, ” that is considered a forerunner of Dr. Christiaan Bernard’s cardiac transplant surgery because of his Nobel work. His other honours are Legion d’Honneur, France; Nordhoff-Jung Prize for Cancer Research, 1930; the Newman Foundation Award, Univ. of Illinois, 1937 and the Rotary Club of New York Service Award, 1939 and honorary memberships of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,
The Fixed Quality
Dr. Carrel, as Marc Jones points out in the Essentials of Astrology, has a preponderance of fixed planets in his charts (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio &Aquarius). This preponderance is not a focal determinator¹, but a characteristic within the chart that is striking. It is not an exterior philosophy overlayed like Hellenic Lords. For Carrel, this Fixed Quality demonstrates his work method — careful application and precision–somewhat like an engineer applying himself to a problem ignoring no detail. The following list are the seven planets in fixed signs.
- 1. Pluto in Taurus
- 2. Venus in Taurus
- 3. Uranus in Leo
- 4. Moon in Leo
- 5. Jupiter in Leo
- 6. Mars in Scorpio
- 7. Saturn in Aquarius
That said, it is Neptune at 28 Aries 17, in a Cardinal and not a fixed sign that is his focal determinator, or the planet that is most in tune with Carrel’s inner vision of applying himself to the ideal of universal service. That is a rather idealistic and lofty goal, but then Neptune in the second house is visionary about personal resources, trusting that they will always have enough for that proverbial rainy day. As Neptune also receives a lot of squares to its position, including an opposition from Mars in the eighth, this cavalier approach was not without lots of strife and deceit from those who felt they could benefit from his magnanimity.
Pluto, not discovered until 1931, twenty years after Carrel’s invention, shown on his natal chart in the third house suggests Carrel was very concerned about ravages of War on his brethren, a hallmark of the Splash temperament type. His 14 Pisces 37 Ascendant in the Twelfth supports that universal attitude. It also shows up in his post-Pluto career as a writer, when he penned in 1935, L’Homme, cet inconnu (Man, The Unknown) a best seller despite its rambling manner. In L’Homme, Carrel claimed that biology solved problems of modern life and society. French historian, André Pichot² said a “great humanist” wrote the book, obviously sensing Carrel’s Splash Temperament type.
Carrel was another a pioneer in another Taurean field, thoracic surgery, pertinent because Taurus rules the throat . His Dragon’s tail in the ninth house was a talisman for his end of life, as Carrel died in Paris on November 5, 1944, from a heart attack. Mars is in Scorpio & trine Sun in Cancer, thus exalted in its own house, making him a bit more than natural predisposed to that ailment. Cancer’s ruler is in the fifth, making it that the luminaries switched houses and signs. Nonetheless, his Line of Vitality is absent, another token for weak cardiac health.
The Carrel’s had no children. His wife, Anne-Marie-Laure Gourley de la Motte de Meyrie, whom he married in 1913, shortly after winning the Nobel, was his only survivor.
Footnotes:
- Focal Determinator is Marc Jones term for this special interest planet. It is always of special concern to the native because it is how they manage and cope with stress.
- Geroulanos, Stefanos, “An Atheism that is not Humanist Emerges in French Thought,” Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, c. 2010
