The Goat-gland Transplantation.
by Sydney B. Flower and John R. Brinkley.
PREFACE
Though dealing exactly with a surgical subject, this book is a layman"s word to laymen. It is an attempt to say to the general public a few things about this amazing work of Dr. J. R. Brinkley, of Milford, Kansas, which he is debarred from saying for himself in this simple form. He has under consideration a book of his own covering the subject of Goat-Gland Transplantation, his experiments, successes, failures, theories, and conclusions, which will probably be issued during the winter of 1922, and in that book he expects to treat his subject exhaustively with full medical and surgical detail, in a manner acceptable to the medical profession. But, in the meantime, no satisfactory effort has been made to tell the story to the general public, except in the fragmentary form of occasional newspaper notices.
The author feels that the chief interest in this matter abides with the patient rather than with the pract.i.tioner, or, if not the chief interest, at least an equal interest. It seems proper, therefore, that the subject should be briefly dealt with at this time, while it is yet in its infancy, in such a manner that the general public may grasp the essentials of what is being done in America in this new application of endocrinology. Some attention is paid to the pioneer work of Dr. Frank Lydston of Chicago in the transplanting of human glands into human beings, but rather by way of emphasizing the fact that Dr. Brinkley, with the choice of human, monkey, goat, or sheep glands before him, chose the goat-glands in preference to any other for his field of experiment and operation, and has never for a moment regretted his choice, or seen any reason to alter it.
Without any wish to enter upon a controversy, the author is impelled to take some notice of the statement of Dr. Serge Voronoff of Paris, who, during his recent visit to the United States, announced that he pinned his faith almost exclusively to the glands of the anthropoid apes as most suitable for transplantation into human beings, while he lamented the natural scarcity of obtainable material. Dr. Voronoff is credited with having performed over 150 transplantations upon rams, but none whatever of goat-glands upon human beings, and not more than two or three of simian glands upon human beings. His statement, therefore, that successful transplantation of the glands of the goat into a human being is "impossible, and cannot succeed," is empirical, and entirely unsupported by any experience of his own in the matter. Against it, and completely confuting it, we set the clear conclusions of Dr. Brinkley, backed by his unequalled record of over 600 successful transplants of goat-glands into men and women, during the past three years. Since there is no other human being who has had experience sufficient in this matter upon which he may justly found an opinion, it seems to the author that only one man, Dr. Brinkley himself, is qualified to speak at all, and until members of the medical profession here and in Europe have mastered Dr. Brinkley"s technique, and learned what to do, and how and why, and what not to do, and why not, a dogmatic negative is not the proper comment with regard to the question of whether successful transplantation of goat-glands can be made upon human beings. If, after learning what Dr. Brinkley has learned by laborious experiments, continued for years, they find that their conclusions differ from his, they will at least have earned the right to speak. But it is unreasonable to suppose, in that event, that their conclusions would in any way or degree differ from Dr. Brinkley"s conclusion that, in brief, the implanting of the glands of the young goat into men and women is an actual triumph of modern surgery and medical skill, which has resulted, in hundreds of cases, clearly recorded, and filed for reference, in rejuvenating both men and women; removing impotence from old men; curing arterio-sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, in every case treated; curing five cases of Dementia Praec.o.x out of a total of five cases treated; curing six cases of Locomotor Ataxia out of six cases treated; curing two cases of Paralysis Agitans out of two cases treated; restoring normal conditions in one hundred cases of Psychopathia s.e.xualis; bringing about the parenthood of barren women and impotent men not yet past middle-age; restoring the function of menstruation or regular periodicity to women who have pa.s.sed through the change of life; and, in a word, making good in the cure of so-called incurables, and doing something that was never done before, to our knowledge, in the history of the earth.
It is not the intention in this little book to follow Dr. Brinkley in exact detail through his amazing list of cases of all manner of diseases cured by this treatment. His files are open to the profession at all times, and the records may be consulted by the earnest investigator at the hospital at Milford, Kansas.
The intention in this little book is to cover particularly that phase of human longing which asks that the clock be turned back, and that old age be deferred.
It is a fact beyond all gainsaying that Dr. Brinkley"s operation has in truth cheated old age of its toll in very many cases of both s.e.xes, and the improvement, or rejuvenation, affects both the minds and bodies of those treated by this method; and this rejuvenation is lasting to the extent of the doctor"s observation. It would be presuming to say that it is a permanent improvement. Upon that point no one has any right to offer an opinion, because there are no facts upon which to found it. But Dr. Brinkley"s earliest cases, operated upon three years ago, up to the present time have shown no diminution whatever in the good effects secured. Neither the women nor the men have lost any particle of their increased vitality during this lapse of time. Who can say how long the good effects will continue? Dr. Brinkley"s opinion is that the improvement will run for possibly fifteen years, at the end of which time he expects to re-operate upon any cases that show a slowing-down in the life-processes, and believes that the introduction of two new glands after that time will result in a return of the vitality in full force as before. That is his guess of the probable duration of the improvement, but it is quite possible that his estimate errs on the side of conservatism. There is one a.s.suring and comforting fact, however, bearing on this point, which should be carefully noted here, namely, when a retransplantation was made by Dr. Brinkley upon a goat which had first been cured of old age by transplantation of new glands, which was allowed to retain this new adolescence for a year, and was then deprived of the glands, causing a speedy return to the miserable condition of old age and its ills, and which was then re-operated upon and given two new glands, the instant improvement was every whit as noticeable and as perfect in this second implantation as in the first. Now it is a reasonable inference from this clear-cut result that Dr. Brinkley is right in his opinion that a second transplantation of the goat-glands into a human being after a lapse of years, when the first implant may be expected to have worn itself thin, will result in the same improvement in the physical and mental condition of either man or woman as took place upon the first implant. This is, in fact, the basis of his theory that the normal age of man and woman today can be surely extended from the three score and ten limit to possibly twice that number of years.
You are invited to consider what this discovery of Dr. Brinkley"s operation, for it is no less than a discovery, would have meant to the world in the prolongation of the lives of those benefactors in all fields of human endeavor, Literature, Science, Art, etc., if it had been known and understood when Shakespeare wrote, when Darwin worked, when Rubens painted, and when Patti sang. It will please your fancy to picture what might have been, but we have before us the consideration of what is, and it is more than comforting to know that we shall deal here with the hard cold facts of what is being done today, and will be done tomorrow. This is no poet"s dream, but the stern reality of a young surgeon"s work in hospital, extending over three memorable years of achievement in a virgin field. Dr. Brinkley has worked out his problem alone, save for the devoted aid of his wife, who is also a licensed physician. He is today a poor man, and expects to remain so, because he has refused every alluring offer made him looking to the establishment of this Goat-Gland operation as a commercial proposition on a big scale.
He is governed by his ethical vows, and retains his independence, but the world would call him a fool for not turning his discovery to his greatest pecuniary profit. Since he prefers to remain true to his ideals in this matter it is for us at least to be thankful, and accord him the recognition to which the scientist is ent.i.tled who puts his work above his profits.
Chicago, April, 1921.
CHAPTER I
DR. BRINKLEY"S THEORY
We are not privileged to be discursive in a little book which seeks to hit the nail on the head in every paragraph, drive it home in every page, and clinch it in every chapter, and there would be no excuse, therefore, for sketching, even in brief outline, the history of the various attempts that have been made, from Brown-Sequard, with his Elixir, to Metchnikoff, with his benevolent bacteria of the intestinal tract, to extract from Life its secret of human longevity. It has been a long quest, and, in the main, fruitless, though it might be said in fairness that Brown-Sequard"s method of using the expressed testicular juice as a medicine, by mouth or injection, for the renewal of youth, was probably the true parent of the present familiar method of using the extracts of various glands, or the pulverized substance of the glands themselves, notably the thyroid and the adrenal, as medicines to be taken internally for the relief of various diseased conditions. The constant objection to such form of medication is, of course, that when the medicine is stopped the good results stop, so that a temporary relief is the utmost that can be hoped for from the method. Genius is synthetic, elliptic, sudden, but always clear and sure. Dr. Brinkley began with a theory, and by no means a new theory. From the theory he deduced rapidly, and acted. The results of the acts proved the truth of the theory. That theory has been variously stated, its most familiar form being, "In all living forms the basis of all energy is s.e.x-energy."
Looking about for facts to confirm or disprove this a.s.sertion all investigators have been faced with similar phenomena, such as:
When the male fowl is sterilized in order that he may grow big and fat for the market later he loses his c.o.c.k"s plumage and gains in weight. In the psychic domain the changes are still more marked. The capon is a coward, shunning the contest for supremacy. He does not forage for the hens, inviting them to feed upon what he has found, but looks after himself first and last. He is lazy, sluggish, and selfish.
The stallion is a proud and beautiful animal, and Job"s description of the war-horse "He paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength, He goeth on to meet the armed men!" with its context, is still the best word-painting we have of the majesty of the horse in full possession of his s.e.xual powers. The gelding is tractable and useful, and the absence of the fiery impatience of the stallion fits the gelding for man"s use.
When men are castrated, as in the East, in youth, where they are prized as custodians of the harem, they are fat, usually large of frame, but short-lived. The growth of hair on the head is often scant; on the face and body it is altogether missing. The voice is high, partaking of a treble quality. When through surgical operation or accident it happens that a man is deprived of the testicular glands in youth, early manhood, or even middle-age, the same changes follow as in the case of the eunuch, the hair on face and body disappears, the voice changes from deep to high tone, and mentally the man develops inertia and cowardice.
Physically, he puts on fat almost immediately.
When women have, for any reason, had their ovaries removed by surgical operation, marked changes follow, which vary much in detail, but carry certain general similarities. The face and body age rapidly in appearance, and there is a slowing up of functions of the organs, with a tendency to masculinity in tastes, behavior, feelings.
Noting these and many other phenomena, as many had done before him, Dr.
Brinkley concluded that the testes of the male and the ovaries of the female performed corresponding offices for each s.e.x, generating the vital fluids which, when not fulfilling their primary object of reproducing the species, were turned back into the blood and absorbed by the tissues for the benefit of the individual"s physical and mental processes. Normal activity of the secretions of the s.e.x-glands, therefore, meant, in Dr. Brinkley"s opinion, right nourishment for all the cells of the body, and right functioning of all the organs of the body. The strength and speed of the stallion in health were as much due to the right action of the s.e.x-glands as his full-arched neck, his blazing eye, or his thick mane and tail. And since the capon and the eunuch acquired a cowardice that avoided fatigue, effort, or conflict, it was clear that the mental qualities were as directly influenced by the testicular secretion as the physical. It followed that the well-nourished brain, capable of sustained concentration and clear thinking, must necessarily be the brain that was fed by the normal activity of the s.e.x-glands, and it also followed that since youth in man and woman is the time of matured beauty of face and form in man and woman, when s.e.xual secretions are of normal activity, therefore, the s.e.xual secretions were mainly responsible for the development of matured beauty of face and form. From this it was clear and evident that the haggard face, the lined face, the over-thin or the over-fat body, phemonena familiar to all of us in men and women who have pa.s.sed their youth, were due in the main to lack of nourishment of the body-cells by the seminal fluid, with lack of proper functioning of the organs, and resultant lack of proper elimination of waste matter from the system, producing that condition of slowing-down of the machine which is a part of the aging process of the body and mind of man and woman, as seen in all men and all women today.
It is important always that you realize that though we may seem to stress the physical improvement in human beings brought about by this gland-transplantation, the more important change of the two is the mental, and Dr. Brinkley"s theory that ALL ENERGY IS s.e.x-ENERGY means exactly that the powerful brain equally with the beautiful face owes its strength and vigor exactly to the right functioning of the s.e.x-glands.
We must not be accused here of running to extravagance. It is not stated that all human brains are of equal power or can be developed to equal power. It is stated that all human brains of unusual power are brains that are well-nourished by the testicular secretions, and it is implied, with full understanding of what this statement leads to, that if, for any reason, there is an interference with this s.e.x-gland activity, the unusual brain will cease in a short time to be unusual in its power, grasp, and faculty of clear, continuous thought. Similarly it is stated that if this unusual brain, after losing its power of sustained thinking, is again fed by the renewed activities of the s.e.x-glands, it will re-establish its power, and the mind will display its former brilliance.
You see how amazing and far-reaching is the application of this apparently simple theory that s.e.x-energy is the basis of all human energy.
It is, after all, only another way of saying that all things proceed from a common source, that Life is One, that Mind and Body derive from the same source, that energy is so much an integral of matter, that in the final a.n.a.lysis matter is only static energy; since the atom is made of molecules, and molecules of electrons, and electrons of electricity, or energy.
In saying, therefore, that s.e.x-energy is at the basis of all human energy we may quite possibly be trending towards a solution of the world-old question of what Life itself is. Some day, without a doubt, we shall surprise this secret at its source. At present we are fortunate to have discovered, through Dr. Brinkley"s careful proving of his theory, that human energy, no matter whether its manifestation be physical or mental, has a common base of supply, the s.e.x-glands, and that their activity determines a brilliant mentality, or a dull brain; a state of health, or a state of disease; beauty of form and feature and skin, or wrinkles, sallowness and ugliness. These appearances and qualities are phenomena which have the same source, or base. Many have felt this to be true. Dr. Brinkley alone has had the wit and skill to find the means to solve the problem as it should be solved to be of any value to humanity, namely, to discover how the inactivity can be changed to activity, how the blood of man and woman can be charged anew with the life-giving hormones, perhaps, or whatever may be the name of that substance secreted by the s.e.x-glands and used by the blood to nourish all the cells of the body, which MUST be present in the system if body and mind are to continue to function at their best.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DR. AND MRS. BRINKLEY]
CHAPTER II
THE PRACTICE. MEN
Dr. Brinkley began his experiments in gland-transplanting upon animals in the year 1911, three years before the European War, using goats, sheep, and guinea-pigs as his subjects. He ran beyond the limits of his resources in this experimental work on animals, which was interrupted by his enlistment in the army, and a.s.signment to service as First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps. Pa.s.sed fit for Foreign Duty he was nevertheless unable to get across to France, and remained, like many another good surgeon, on duty in various southern camps.
Returning to civilian life he took up his quest again, varying a general medical and surgical practice by continued observation and experiment in gland-transplantations upon animals, leaning ever more strongly towards the exclusive use of goats. About this time he heard of the work of Professor Steinach of Vienna in grafting the glands of rats, and producing changes in the character and appearance of the animals by inverting the process of nature and transplanting male glands into females, and vice versa, sometimes with success. He had followed with the greatest interest also the experiments of Dr. Frank Lydston of Chicago, who performed his first human-gland transplantation upon himself, an example of courage that falls not far short of heroism. But Dr. Brinkley was never favorably impressed with the idea of using the glands of a human being for the renovation of the life-force of another human being. He was looking to the young of the animal kingdom to furnish him with the material he proposed to use to improve the functioning of human organs, and more certainly as time pa.s.sed he drew to the conclusion that in the goat, and in the goat alone, was to be found that gland-tissue which, because of its rapid maturity, potency, and freedom from those diseases to which humanity is liable, was most sure under right conditions of implantation to feed, nourish, grow into and become a part of, human gland-tissue.
Later we will dwell a little upon some of his results. It is worthy of note in pa.s.sing that his first experiment upon a human being was an unqualified success. He transplanted the goat-glands into a farmer who was forty-six years of age, happily married, but childless, and one year after the transplantation a child was born, who was christened "Billy"
in honor of the circ.u.mstances responsible for his birth. By patient selection Dr. Brinkley has found that the Toggenburg breed of Swiss goat gives him the best possible stock to use in his gland-work. This choice was forced upon him by results obtained by the use of other breeds. He found that the Toggenburg goat gave him best results because the animal, besides its sound health, carries none of that persistent odor which is peculiar to male goats the world over, and which, if shed abroad by a human being would make his neighborhood unpleasant. He found that the best age of the male goats whose glands were to be transplanted was from three weeks to a month. He found that the best age at which to use the ovaries of the female goat was one year, because, unlike its youthful brother, the female goat"s s.e.x-activities are not developed before that age.
His method of transplanting the glands into a man is by making two incisions in the man"s s.c.r.o.t.u.m under simple local anesthesia, a practically painless operation, but from this point on the technique varies according to the conditions presented by the case. No two cases are exactly alike, and Dr. Brinkley performs no two operations exactly alike. That is the reason, he explains, why, with the best will in the world to teach his fellow-pract.i.tioners what to do and how to do it, he is nevertheless unable to state in writing exactly what treatment to use to cover all cases. It cannot be taught by correspondence, and, simple though it sounds to hear it, it cannot be learned by attendance at a few clinics. It is delicate in this sense, that if it is not rightly performed in the individual case the glands will slough. That means loss of time, loss of temper, and the waste of a perfectly good pair of young goat-glands. Another very important thing which his experiments have taught Dr. Brinkley is this: the glands on being removed from the goat must immediately be placed in a salt solution warmed to blood-heat, and they must be used on the human being WITHIN TWENTY MINUTES from the time they are taken from the goat. No such thing is possible as keeping these glands in the refrigerator for twenty-four hours, or anything of that kind, before using. The more quickly after removal from the animal they are used the more likely they are to take hold and grow. In his men cases he uses sometimes one gland, sometimes two; sometimes the whole gland, just as it came from the young goat, sometimes a part of the gland only, but he leans to the opinion that the gland of the three-weeks-old goat gives best results if used entire, without tr.i.m.m.i.n.g. Sometimes he lays the gland +upon+ the outside of the human testis, connecting part with part; sometimes he opens the testis by incision and lays the goat-gland within the cleft. Very often there are adhesions which must be broken down before the goat-gland can function rightly. Very often there are unsuspected hydroceles, forming cysts in the testicular ma.s.s, which must be cut out, or there may be varicocele requiring attention. The patient suffers very slight inconvenience; the local anesthetic is enough to dull the pain even of the breaking down of the adhesions, so that it is at its worst no more than the pain of a toothache, and lasts a very brief while. Many of the patients converse with the doctor while the operation is proceeding. The pain is negligible. The doctor proceeds according to the condition, age, etc., of his patient. He may ligate, that is to say, tie off, the tubes that connect with one testis, or the other, or both; he may not ligate at all. It will depend upon the result sought, the condition present, and the age of the patient. Suppose the patient is an old man in whom it is desired to produce rejuvenation; the doctor then will ligate both sides, in order that the new glands when they take hold, and begin to feed the testes of the man, stimulating these to a new activity, may not be overtaxed to the point of excess usage by the patient when he returns home and finds himself in possession of a s.e.xual vigor that has been unknown to him for many years. This increase in s.e.xual vigor +invariably+ follows, regardless of the age of the patient. The glowing letters on file in the doctor"s office attest this. Here, for instance, is a letter from a man eighty-one years of age, who says, "I feel like a boy of eighteen. This is something I have not known for more than forty years. The goat-glands have certainly done the work for me, but I wish, doctor, you would fix it so that I could complete the s.e.xual act," etc., etc.
But this completion of the s.e.xual act is exactly the thing that is to be avoided in the case of these old men. Remember the theory in the last chapter, "All animal energy is s.e.x-energy." The conversion of this s.e.x-energy into other forms of energy, physical and mental, is the aim, and this aim would be frustrated if these old men were given full power to do as they pleased with their new-found youthful vigor. You cannot always trust them. That is the purpose of the ligating of both sides, making the emission of the s.e.m.e.n impossible. The life-force, then, having no other outlet, can do nothing else but reinvigorate the entire system by pouring its precious fluids into the blood.
Suppose, now, the case is that of a man of fifty who is physically run down, married, and anxious to be the father of a child. In such a case, if the man is physically sound, Dr. Brinkley will do one of two things.
After the transplantation of the new glands he will either ligate one side permanently, and allow one testis to carry on the work of rejuvenation while the other can be used for procreation, or he will ligate both sides and say to the man, "I am tying off both testes because you will need to rebuild for at least one year before you should think of becoming a father. But I am ligating with linen thread, which does not dissolve, and if you come back to me in one year from now I will remove the ligatures, one or both, and you will then be able to procreate." This is reasonable and wise talk, and the man makes no objection. When the year of probation, as you might call it, has expired, the man returns to the hospital, the ligature is removed, and he goes home in a couple of days. These things are not fairy-tales, but solid facts, amazing as they sound to you. There are five goat-gland babies today among Dr. Brinkley"s patients that he knows of, four boys and one girl. There are probably many more of whom he has heard nothing, for patients have a way of moving out of touch after awhile.
CHAPTER III
THE PRACTICE. WOMEN
At Dr. Brinkley"s hospital, a beautifully appointed private residence, it is a comfort to women patients to have the doctor"s wife, herself a competent surgeon if necessary, at hand during the actual operation.
Mrs. Brinkley administers the local anesthetic, or the general anesthetic, if that is called for, as it sometimes is. While the bulk of the operations performed on both men and women are gland-transplantations, a diseased condition of tubes and ovaries has sometimes made a laporotomy necessary, and many major operations have been successfully performed in the white-enameled operating room.
At such times a woman clings to the presence of a woman, and Mrs.
Brinkley"s kind and pleasant manner is usually sufficient to banish all nervousness from the woman patient.
In ordinary cases of gland-transplantation into women, where the patient is in good physical condition, with no disease of the organs, the operation is as simple as in the case of the man. The speculum discloses the condition of the v.a.g.i.n.a, and the insertion of the new ovary is into the mucous membrane of the v.a.g.i.n.a, leaving the goat-ovary about four inches distant from the woman"s. The only incision made is a small one, about one inch long, painless under local anesthetic, the purpose of the incision being to get a blood supply for the goat-ovary. Sometimes one ovary is implanted, sometimes two; invariably the new ovary is trimmed to a reduction in size. Invariably it is implanted within twenty minutes of its removal from the nanny-goat. Unfortunately for the goat, the removal of her ovaries usually costs her her life. She mopes for a few days, refuses to eat, and dies. She is always given a general anesthetic, and the removal is painless at least, if fatal. Pursuing the conclusions drawn from his long experience, Dr. Brinkley has found that women derive more instant benefit from the glands than men with respect to their awakened enthusiasm, improved appearance, and recovery of the feeling of poise and well-being. Very noticeable is the change of figure which follows the implanting of the new ovaries in the case of a fat woman. The change is equally marked in the case of a fat man. A man of abnormal weight, 250 lbs., lost fifty pounds in two weeks following the operation, during which time he remained at the hospital, feeling well and strong, but shrinking in girth amazingly. When he left the hospital his clothes hung about him in bags and folds. The fat woman"s spirits seem to rise as her weight decreases, and she feels as if she had indeed regained the buoyancy of her youth.
Dr. Brinkley by no means a.s.serts that the woman whose ovaries have been removed by surgical operation will grow two new ovaries after the transplantation has been made, but he cites the case of a woman whose ovaries had been removed by surgical operation some years previous, the uterus remaining intact, in whom he implanted two goat-ovaries, and whose periods shortly afterwards returned on a four-day basis, with twenty-eight-day interval. He does not say that the goat-ovaries transplanted into the woman have grown new ovaries, but there remains the phenomenon of the renewed menstruation, and this is very difficult to account for. In barren women, from twenty-eight to thirty-five years of age, in whom he has found not a diseased, but an atrophied, condition of the ovaries, the transplantation has invariably been attended with success to the removal of the barrenness, the new glands evidently bringing about the development of ova. Nor does Dr. Brinkley say that in the case of a man who has had both glands removed by surgical operation, the transplantation will produce new glands for the man, and yet he has had two successes to offset several failures in this very result, without any clue to why the success followed in the one case and not in the other. The work is yet in its infancy stage, and Dr. Brinkley is the first to admit that there is far more about it to be known than he has yet succeeded in knowing. He is averse to experimenting upon women patients at this stage of his knowledge, and has many times refused to transplant the glands for women who have requested him to perform the operation for them. One such case was at the hospital during the writer"s visit there in April. She was a paralysis case, quite fat, unable to walk except by putting forward one foot at a time, supported by the arm of someone on each side of her. She was driven to the hospital in an automobile, accompanied by her husband and daughter, from the farm--two hundred miles away! Dr. Brinkley strongly urged her not to have the gland operation performed at all, but she insisted upon giving it a trial. It is too soon yet to speak of results in this case, but in Dr. Brinkley"s view it is asking too much of the glands to expect them to produce favorable results in a case of this severity. Yet, at this time, there was in the hospital a young woman suffering from Dementia Praec.o.x, whose mother had been watching over her for twelve years, and on whom the affliction of her daughter had so weighed that she told the writer she wished G.o.d would take one or the other of them, because it was more than she could bear. This young woman had been confined in the State Hospital for the Insane, and had been treated by specialists for many years, without any benefit at all. There was some homicidal mania, much depression, and attempts at suicide. She could not be left alone in her room for a moment. But the day after the transplantation of the glands this young woman embraced her mother, and talked so rationally to her that she called in Dr. Brinkley, and with tears repeated what her daughter had just said. Dr. Brinkley advised her that the results were altogether too sudden to build upon. "There will certainly be ups and downs yet," he said. "You must expect good days and bad days, when you will doubt if your daughter is any better. But, to make a normal recovery, she +ought+ to show an alternation of good and bad days, with the good days gradually drawing ahead and becoming more frequent and more marked. I look for her to recover entirely in a year"s time, but she will always retain her sensitiveness and a certain amount of hysteria, so that things that would not bother you or me will hurt her grievously. You must be prepared to expect this to happen. But I see no reason at all why she should not in the near future become a happy wife and mother." The blessings of this good mother were a reward in themselves, and were so received by the doctor and his wife. When such results as this are obtained it becomes very difficult to draw a line and say, "The goat-glands will do no good here." Physicians of the best standing had said to this poor mother before she took her daughter to Kansas, "So you"re determined to try the goat-glands? You are wasting your time and money. Brinkley is nothing but a fake. If there were any help for your daughter we could cure her. We can do nothing. There is no help for her!" This was repeated to the writer by the mother, and he vouches for its truth. Is it not evident that a better understanding of the goat-gland operation is highly desirable among physicians and surgeons today?
Quite a frequent style of inquiry from women to the doctor runs like this: "I am in good health, and in every way normal; age 35. I want to remain as I am, and grow no older in appearance than I am today. Do you think that the goat-gland operation would keep me from getting any older?" To this kind of inquiry Dr. Brinkley makes a stereotyped reply, something as follows: "If you are today in good health I should not advise the goat-gland operation, but would advise it in your case as soon as you have pa.s.sed the change of life, in ten or fifteen years from now." To the writer he said, "I cannot conscientiously advise this woman to submit to this operation, because I don"t know that the glands would advantage her in any way. They might, or they might not. I don"t know.
It is therefore experimental work, and I cannot take her money for an experiment. I must have something definite in the way of experience to go upon. There must be some evident condition of ill-health to be set right. But, on the other hand, though I will not advise these people to take the gland operation, there may be something in her idea that the glands will arrest age and hold it back. I have never been in a position where I could afford to experiment on young and healthy human beings, and this point can only be settled by such experiment upon healthy and young human beings. I should say at a guess that the operation would do her no good, but you understand that this is a guess only. I do not know anything about it. All such things as this we shall learn by degrees by further experiment. At present I am kept busy attending to cases of real sickness, or defined conditions of arrest of function, where I have experience to guide me in saying that the gland-operation will be of benefit, but, if I could afford to perform a few of these experimental operations for nothing, at no cost to the patient, I should be glad of the chance. There is so much yet to be learned in this work."