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From such researches Dr. Crile concluded that, except for man and the higher apes, the brain size of earth's animals is almost directly proportional to energy output. He worked out a "radio-electric" interpretation of life: plants, he believed, are "generated by radiant and electric energy" from the sun; animals get their radiant and electric energy from plants; in a living cell the acid nucleus is positively charged, the surrounding cytoplasm (cell substance) is negative and the cell membrane is a condenser; in the body as a whole, the brain is a positive pole, the red blood cells negative. Few scientists went along with Dr. Crile in his theories and many were downright irritated in 1930 when he made "something approximating life" (he was careful to say it was not life) from chemicals in a test tube.
"Biological Necessity." Dr. Crile did not mind the criticism. "Struggle," he said, "is a biological necessity, and even war is preferable to pusillanimous peace leading to degeneracy." He himself never let up. He continued to present his papers before the best scientific societies (e.g., Philadelphia's exclusive, ancient Philosophical Society), received a score of medals and honorary degrees. He was not even halted when in 1929 the Cleveland Clinic was gutted by a fire which cost 125 lives—patients, doctors, nurses, many of Dr. Crile's best friends among them—and when, about the same time, he lost in real estate most of the $2,000,000 fortune his surgery had built.
Less than two years ago, at 76, he came near death when a plane in which he was returning from Florida crashed in a swamp. He developed pneumonia after sitting all day waist-deep in muck, directing first-aid operations. When he recovered he took no rest cure but flew back to Cleveland to work on the Clinic's museum of stuffed animals and their preserved viscera.