Life without heart and lungs.

London : University of London Audio-Visual Centre, 1974.

1 encoded moving image (15.41 min.) : sound, black and white.

00:15:41

University of London

Restricted

In English

Presented by Denis Melrose, Professor of Surgical Science, Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Produced by John Metcalfe. Made by University of London Audio-Visual Centre. Made for British Postgraduate Medical Federation.

This video is one of around 310 titles, originally broadcast on Channel 7 of the ILEA closed-circuit television network, given to Wellcome Trust from the University of London Audio-Visual Centre shortly after it closed in the late 1980s. Although some of these programmes might now seem rather out-dated, they probably represent the largest and most diversified body of medical video produced in any British university at this time, and give a comprehensive and fascinating view of the state of medical and surgical research and practice in the 1970s and 1980s, thus constituting a contemporary medical-historical archive of great interest. The lectures mostly take place in a small and intimate studio setting and are often face-to-face. The lecturers use a wide variety of resources to illustrate their points, including film clips, slides, graphs, animated diagrams, charts and tables as well as 3-dimensional models and display boards with movable pieces. Some of the lecturers are telegenic while some are clearly less comfortable about being recorded; all are experts in their field and show great enthusiasm to share both the latest research and the historical context of their specialist areas.

Segment 1 The lecture begins with a short film of life support being used in an operating theatre. A member of theatre staff demonstrates an artificial lung. The film clip ends. Melrose shows slides showing silicone and other polymeric membranes which can be used in surgery. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:04:31:19 Length: 00:04:31:19

Segment 2 Melrose shows a slide in which a silicone membrane is used to enable a hamster to breathe in a cage immersed in an aquarium. He then shows a slide which illustrates the mechanism of an artificial kidney. Time start: 00:04:31:19 Time end: 00:09:51:19 Length: 00:05:10:00

Segment 3 Melrose shows a diagrammatic slide of an experiment set up for oxygen uptake by blood via silicon membranes. A film clip shows a lamb being kept alive artificially without heart and lungs. Melrose suggests that the lamb is quite happy and doesn't mind. Time start: 00:09:51:19 Time end: 00:15:41:21 Length: 00:05:50:02