The Goat-Gland
Transplantation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S 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 practitioner, 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 6 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 7 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 Praecox 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 Sexualis; 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 passed through the change of life; and, in 8 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 sexes, 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 9 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 assuring 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 10 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 entitled 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, 12 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 sex-energy.”

Looking about for facts to confirm or disprove this assertion 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 cock’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 sexual 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 13 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 sex, 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 sex-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 sex-glands as his full-arched neck, his blazing eye, or his thick mane and tail. And since the capon and 14 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 sex-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 sexual secretions are of normal activity, therefore, the sexual 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 passed 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 SEX-ENERGY means exactly that the powerful brain equally with the beautiful face owes 15 its strength and vigor exactly to the right functioning of the sex-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 sex-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 sex-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 sex-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 analysis 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 sex-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. 16 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 sex-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 sex-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.

16

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 assignment to service as First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps. Passed 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 18 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 passed 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 passing 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 circumstances 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, 19 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 sex-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 scrotum 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-practitioners 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 20 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 trimming. 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 mass, 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 21 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 sexual vigor that has been unknown to him for many years. This increase in sexual 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 sexual act,” etc., etc.

But this completion of the sexual 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 sex-energy.” The conversion of this sex-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 semen impossible. The life-force, then, having no 22 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 vagina, and the insertion of the new ovary is into the mucous membrane of the vagina, 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 24 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 asserts 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 25 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 26 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 Praecox, 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 God 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 27 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 28 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 passed 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 29 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.”

CHAPTER IV

DR. BRINKLEY’S OWN STORY

The New York American, issue of March 14, 1920, carried the following articles:

GOAT GLANDS SUCCESSFUL

Head of Hospital Tells of the Curing of Sterility by the New Discovery and of Control of Sex Through Simple Operation—Disease and Insanity Also Banished.

By Dr. W. H. Ballou

Dr. J. R. Brinkley, head of the Brinkley-Jones Hospital and Training School for Nurses at Milford, Kansas, has now furnished to the scientific world what are termed “ample proof cases” that by implantation of the fresh interstitial glands of the goat sterile people may bear children of either sex desired. Already the town is filling up with childless people waiting to be operated upon. Incidentally, cases of insanity are cured within thirty-six hours after a simple operation. Other diseases also disappear. Milford is a small town 150 miles west of Kansas City. Here Dr. Brinkley has performed more than 100 major operations, and more than 300 minor operations, each one a success; cured more than 1,000 cases of Influenza, without losing a case; and cured one “hopeless” case of sleeping-sickness.

The practice of Dr. Brinkley accords with the investigations of glands by Professor 31 Arthur Keith, president of the Anthropological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Keith states: “The interstitial gland has as much to do with the growth, in certain particulars, as the pituitary gland has in general bodily growth. All of the changes we see in children after they begin to grow, which bring to prominence racial characteristics, depend upon the action of the interstitial gland. If the gland is removed, or remains in abeyance, the maturing of the body is prolonged or altered. Sex differences, the more robust manifestations of males, are more emphatic in the white than in either the black or yellow race. This is shown in the beardless face and almost hairless body of Mongols and Negroes, and especially in Nilotic tribes of Negroes with long, stork-like legs, which is a manifestation of abeyance of the interstitial gland. As she grows aged, and her sexual condition closes, woman assumes the coarser and more masculine appearance, due to the loss of functioning of this gland. It is the prime factor in differentiating the races of mankind.”

Kingsley affirms, in “Comparative Morphology of Vertebrates” that “interstitial cells carries secretions in man which pass into the blood. They apparently cause secondary male characters such as, among other things, hair on the face and change of voice at the close of boyhood. They govern most female characteristics.”

We are on the eve of a tremendous revolution, which must cause a drastic revision of all 32 works on zoology, anatomy, genetics, physiology, and evolution in general. The enormous investigations of glands and their secretions have sprung up and focused since the middle of the World War period. These investigations are rapidly resulting in a new surgery and a new practice of medicine.

Discoverer of New Method of Rejuvenation Tells History

By Dr. J. R. Brinkley

My first operation was upon a husband in a childless family, forty-six years old, and married for sixteen years. His wife was forty-two years old. I transplanted in him the interstitial gland of a male goat. His health improved almost at once, and he thereafter looked and acted like a man many years younger. Within a year he was the father of a fine baby boy. The father continues to retain his improved vitality. The boy was named “Billy” in honor of the goat.

Next a young woman came to me for the operation. I found her glands diseased, removed them, and replaced them with the interstitial glands of a male goat. Her recovery was speedy. A year later she gave birth to a strong boy baby, now four months old. These were but the beginnings. Other women desired female offspring and have received the glands of the female goat. There are now some twenty-five cases in the hospital at Milford receiving goat-glands.

32

THE DEMENTIA PRAECOX CASE,
AND MISS LEWIS HEAD NURSE

Insanity Is Cured. In the hospital is a man who came from New York City recently and received two male goat-glands upon his arrival. During his past he had been in three New York Insane Asylums, and had gone to the Mayo and other institutions. Nothing had been accomplished for his case, and he had been told finally that he was incurable and must remain a mental defective. He had decided to commit suicide if I failed to remedy his condition. In thirty-six hours after the insertion of goat-glands his temperature had risen to above 103 degrees, but became normal twenty-four hours later, and has since remained so. His mind has gradually cleared, he looks and feels younger, and is contemplating marriage. The hideous dreams and nightmares which had destroyed his sleep and rest for many past years have left him, and he now eats and sleeps well. Apparently the cure is complete.

A case of Dementia Praecox, violent in character, was brought to me as a result of the cure in the above case. Restraint was necessary, even to the strapping of his hands, feet and body to the bed. He was in all respects a typical insane asylum case, destined to remain under restraint. The second day after two male goat glands had been inserted he spoke to me, saying, “Doctor, won’t you please remove the straps so I can rest comfortably? I am perfectly aware of everything now and feel as if snatched from the grave.” We removed his shackles and on the following day he called for books to read. He made a beautiful 34 convalescence and a perfect recovery. He is now with his wife and children at home, transacting his business as a normal and sane man. Since 90 per cent of insanity cases and 75 per cent of divorce cases are due to diseased glands, I may be pardoned for holding out hope to a vast, hopeless class, numbered at over 3,000,000 Americans.

Sterility Is Banished. As a rule the women who come to me for treatment prefer to bear male children. In such cases it is essential that they should receive the interstitial glands of the male goat. We have in hospital at the moment, however, a childless married woman of twenty-eight, who wishes devoutly for a female child. We found her sterile of a natural gland and inserted the gland of a female goat. Her transformation has been remarkable, and I am confident her first child will be a girl.

You naturally ask about the future, which can only be premised. Women who have received male goat-glands will continue to bear male children, if any; those that receive the female goat glands will continue to bear girl babies. The future carries a promise of much information to be gleaned along this line. I cannot say what would happen if the husband were to receive male goat glands and the wife female goat glands. Their progeny might or might not be mixed. We will try it on any sterile couple that desires, knowing positively that normal children of one or both sexes will result.

Where substitution of glands of any character is essential, they should be taken from the goat operated upon immediately before the 35 human implanting, and be inserted at once. Glands should not be taken from the ape or other animal for human use. The goat is immune to tuberculosis, He is a clean animal, full of health and vitality. Apes are very subject to tuberculosis. One can never tell whether an ape is diseaseless or not. It is generally unlawful to substitute our human glands, and, even though they could be readily obtained, they are apt to be infected with some disease.

The essential element of foods is the vitamin, a nitrogenous substance of indeterminate nature. Without it we would starve, though eating plenty of proteins, carbo-hydrates, fats, salts and water. Nothing will sustain life if the vitamins are absent from the diet. Goat’s milk contains these important substances in greater abundance than any other animal food.

The Goat Reacts Like Human. The goat alone among mammals reacts to poisons almost identically as human beings react, and the poison gases of the war had precisely the same effect upon him as upon the soldiers. So 1,500 goats did their bit in the war in an experimental way. These points in his favor, and other similarities to man, are the reasons which led me to select the goat as the best possible material in this work. Goat-glands alone seemed to be harmonious and sympathetic when transplanted into the human body. In other words, the hormones of goat and man agree.

We still know less about the causes of hormones than the effects. On account of the 36 mutual tolerance of goat and human hormones the goat gland speedily attaches a blood supply in the human body, and cell by cell is replaced so that it soon functions as the original gland would had it been present and normal. The new gland is also exceptional in that it does not have to be placed near or at the location of the proper human gland. It can be inserted in any place where it is not liable to injury, even in the hip in men.*

It should be noted that I do not claim to make old men young again, or that I have discovered the secret fountain of youth. I am engaged in the practical work of giving health, normality and progeny to men and women who have been cheated out of their natural heritage. I have named the process “re-creative gland operation” in accordance with the belief now general among genetists and anatomists that if the clock of time is ever to be turned back for humanity it can only be through glandular transplantations. Glands have proved much superior to any animal extract or serum in this class of cases. Often in serums the poison elements are retained, but not the nutritive. We use the whole goat gland, as a rule, because we do not know in what part of it the hormones hide. The attempted transplantations of kidneys have thus far failed because the kidney product is waste matter, not live cells as in the case of the interstitial glands.

*Author’s Note.—The date of this interview is more than one year old, March, 1920. Today Dr. Brinkley implants the male glands by incision in the acrotum of the man, and in no other place whatever, having found this method of operation the most sure in results. Today he uses only the male goat-glands for the man, and only the female goat’s ovaries for the woman.

(From The Chicago Tribune, of date February 1, 1920.)

GOAT GLANDS GIVE BABIES TO CHILDLESS.

Woman and Three Men Become Parents After Transplantation.

Milford, Kansas.—A surgeon in this little Kansas town has lifted from womanhood the curse of sterility.

He is Dr. J. R. Brinkley, chief surgeon of the Brinkley-Jones Hospital of Milford.

For several years Dr. Brinkley has made a study of the transplantation of the interstitial glands and its results. Two years ago he performed his first operation upon a human being. Since then he has circumvented nature four times, making it possible for three men and one woman to become parents. He is awaiting results hopefully in four other cases.

The most remarkable case is that of the woman. She is a young married woman of Milford, who had been married several years and had despaired of bearing children. About a year and a half ago she heard of Dr. Brinkley and his success with interstitial gland operations. She went to him and asked him if he could cure her sterility. Dr. Brinkley made no promises—he never does. But he told her 38 the operation was a simple one, and that it would improve her health, even if it failed to give her a child. She gladly submitted to the operation.

Dr. Brinkley removed an interstitial gland from a live male goat. He made a slight incision in the woman’s abdomen, inserted the gland and stitched it in. In a week the patient was about her household duties again. Six months ago she gave birth to a healthy baby. It was a boy. The mother was the happiest woman in Kansas.

The surgeon had treated six other cases similarly, but all were men—men who loved children and yearned for parenthood. Three of the men are now fathers of healthy children.

In each case Dr. Brinkley had used male goat glands—and all the babies were boys.

Then this occurred to him:—

“If I transplant female goat glands maybe the babies will be girls!” He decided to try it, and two months ago his opportunity arrived. A woman came to him just as his first woman patient had come. She was 28 years old, had been married six years, and was childless. Dr. Brinkley performed the operation, using the glands of a female goat. He is now awaiting results. “I do not say this woman will have a girl baby,” said Dr. Brinkley today, “but I am experimenting. It may be merely a coincidence that all the babies so far have been boys. So far as I know, I am the first surgeon to experiment with gland implantation in women. I am also the first to use goat glands in preference to others.

“Unquestionably I have cured sterility in one woman, and I have utmost faith that it can be cured in any other, so long as all of her organs are not missing. The operation is a little more difficult than it is in the case of men, but no more serious. Where a man recovers, and can get about, in two or three days, a woman recovers in a week.

“All of my patients are much improved in their general health as a result of the operation. I wouldn’t say that this operation holds the secret of eternal youth. I don’t know. All my patients have been between the ages of 32 and 48, so that I cannot speak from experience. I believe, however, that the operation will prolong life; I know that it improves the health in every way. But I cannot say that it will restore the bloom of youth to an old man’s cheek. I am considering, however, an operation upon a man 80 years old who came to me and asked for the operation. Whether he would be able to have children as a result of it I do not know.”

None of Dr. Brinkley’s patients had been parents until they came to him. Now the oldest of the babies is 13 months; another is 8 months and a third is 6. Dr. Brinkley does not claim to be a specialist in gland implantation; he is merely a practicing surgeon who has made a study of the subject and is doing what he can to help unfortunate people. The doctor’s modesty until now has hidden his remarkable discovery from the world, but he is now writing a report on his results.

(From the San Diego, Cal., Union, of date, February 7, 1920.)

Scientists who formerly ignored Dr. Brinkley’s letters are now writing to him asking him for exhaustive reports of his work. The sarcastic attitude came largely heretofore from those who were unwilling to believe that such operations of the highest scientific importance, were being performed in an out of the way village that couldn’t be found on a railway map.

Dr. Brinkley, who was graduated from the Medical Department of Loyola University, and who has traveled over all the world, explained his residence in Milford. After leaving the army he sought a location in a small town, selecting Milford as the result of a newspaper advertisement, and going there, found it to consist of less than 200 inhabitants. But the surrounding territory was rich and the farmers prosperous, and in the isolated location he saw the chance of continuing experiments begun at Bellevue Hospital, New York. Later he found himself compelled to build his own hospital to care for the patients that arrived, attracted by the news of the goat-gland operations. Dr. Brinkley is 35 years old and has been a skilled surgeon for more than 15 years. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association, the Missouri Valley Medical Association, the Kansas Medical Association, and a Fellow of the Clinical Congress of Internal Medicine. He is also a 32nd Degree Mason.

In the treatment of pneumonia and influenza Dr. Brinkley uses serums of his own invention. In the treatment of his cases of influenza last year the reports of the health authorities of Geary County, Kansas, show that Dr. Brinkley didn’t lose a single case. Milford is in Geary County, and Geary County swears by Dr. Brinkley.

CHAPTER V

A YEAR OF DEVELOPMENT

The intention in offering for your perusal the preceding newspaper accounts of Dr. Brinkley’s work in the opening months of the year 1920 was to show you what his views at that time were regarding the value of the gland operation which he has since made his life-work. The Chicago Tribune speaks of it as incidental to his general work as a surgeon. Dr. Brinkley himself speaks of shortly beginning an experiment upon an old man of 80. A year later he looked back upon a record of achievement of the most astounding results in operations performed upon men of 75, 80, and even 81. During this past year he has perfected his technique, implants the male glands exclusively into men and the female glands or ovaries into women, and has definitely selected the scrotum of the man as the only right place in which to introduce the goat-glands for the transplantation. You are here viewing the development of a great scientific discovery from the beginning of its employment upon human beings. Nor is there any reason to suppose that the year 1922 will produce no embellishment of value in the form of a wider application of the method. Some very striking limitations have been established during the past year’s work. For instance:

If the blood examination shows a positive 43 Wasserman test for syphilis it is useless to transplant the glands, because they will certainly slough out. Active syphilis is antagonistic to the goat-tissue. Even latent syphilis, showing a negative Wasserman, is likely to produce a slough of the glands. Nothing should be concealed from the doctor, of course, and yet it has happened at the hospital at Milford that a patient on being questioned in advance of the operation has emphatically stated that he had never contracted syphilis, and three days later, after the transplantation, when the sloughing of the new glands had shown something definitely wrong with the blood, this patient admitted that he had not spoken the truth in the matter, but had contracted the disease many years previously. On the other hand, in Locomoter Ataxia, in which there is invariably a history of syphilis, the goat-glands take hold without exception, the efficacy of the transplantation in this disease, hitherto incurable by any means known to man, being due to the power of the new glands to cause a dissolving of scar-tissue, in the opinion of Dr. Abrams of San Francisco, who investigated the remarkable results attained by Dr. Brinkley in his cures of Locomoter Ataxia by the goat-gland operation.

If the goat-glands are transplanted into members of the Hebrew race there follows invariably a high temperature persisting for several days, after which the cure proceeds normally without any untoward occurrence. Glands transplanted into a negro will slough, or, at least, they did so in the one case on 44 which Dr. Brinkley performed the operation, for no apparent reason other than a supposed racial antagonism to goat-tissue. No experiments have yet been conducted upon Japanese, Chinese, Hindus, or our native Indians. When the blood count shows high in white (leucocytes) and low in red, the glands will slough, but the reverse condition does not hold true. And now let us consider the case of Mr. Ernst, of Morganville, Kansas, who is over 77 years of age, and who permits the use of his name and address. One of the most curious features of his case is that when he came for the operation his hair, white as snow, was thin on the scalp, the color of the skin of the scalp showing through the hair, as it frequently does in the aged. That was almost a year ago. Mr. Ernst’s hair is now turning black all over the head, the scalp shows a thickening in the growth, or an increase in the quantity of hair, and you cannot now see the scalp through the hair. Mr. Ernst wrote an excellent letter to Dr. Brinkley two months ago, and states that he has no objection at all to its reproduction. When a personal story of this kind is offered for use it is as well to use it in its original form, but this so rarely happens in this work that for its uniqueness alone it would be worth while to put it before you. With some notable exceptions, the men patients who have been operated upon by Dr. Brinkley feel ashamed of the fact. Not for anything would they let their friends or acquaintances know anything about it. The veil of secrecy is, of course, never lifted by the doctor. The women 45 patients have none of this false shame, apparently, but enjoy discussing the results of the operation with their friends. It is, perhaps, natural that a United States Senator, two of whom have been operated on with much advantage to themselves, should shrink from the jocose remarks of friend or foe and the curiosity of acquaintances. There is good reason, in the case of a public man, for avoidance of notice in the matter, and that is one of the advantages of having the hospital located in the tiny village of Milford. If freedom from observation is the wish it is certainly gratified there. Agreeing, therefore, on the whole, with the reticence of the public man in this matter, we yet feel a certain satisfaction in the robust avowals of Mr. Ernst. Follows his letter of January, 1921:

“I am 77 years old, employed as commercial salesman by one of the largest manufacturing companies of its kind in the world, and command a good salary and the confidence of my employers. Since my operation at Dr. Brinkley’s hospital I am now their free lance salesman, opening up new territory and making good money. Any doubting Thomas may send me a self-addressed envelope if he questions the genuineness of what I say here about myself, and I will take time to answer him. First, the operation is absolutely painless. For a number of years I was a martyr to Sciatica and Muscular Rheumatism. I used every Patent Medicine I could hear of, besides Osteopathy and Chiropractic, and innumerable prescriptions from physicians, and received no 46 benefit at all. The sciatic trouble was bad enough, but to this you must add loss of memory, hydrocele, kidney trouble, constipation, no appetite, and insomnia. Most nights two hours sleep was the most I could get, for the pains were incessant. I read in ... the Kansas City Post last Spring about Dr. Brinkley’s Goat-Gland operation, and decided to try it right away. I was in such misery I would have tried anything. Now I want to tell you, in the fewest words, that the amazing truth is that I have not had a twinge of pain of any kind at all since the operation, and have only a memory of my former suffering. This is a marvelous thing. I have the feeling of a youth. Whenever you want to hear from me I will write again and tell you what changes have taken place in me as the result of this operation. If I was asked to put a cash value upon the operation in my own case I could not do it, but I can say that all I possess in cash would be a poor equivalent for the difference the operation has made in my life. What is the difference in cash value between a life that is worth living and one that is constant misery? I don’t know how you would fix that value, but that is the difference the operation has made in me.

S. H. ERNST.”

Dr. Brinkley has kept in close touch with Mr. Ernst, and received other letters, not for publication, in which the old gentleman went frankly into details of the change that had been wrought in him by the operation in the matter of astonishing sexual vigor. For 47 obvious reasons such details, while of the greatest scientific interest, cannot be more than hinted at in a book, and we must content ourselves with the acceptance of the fact as a fact of interest to science, to Dr. Brinkley, to the world of aged men at our doors, and to Mr. Ernst particularly, rejoicing in his new-found vigor.

Apart from the genuinely happy tone of his letters to Dr. Brinkley, the phenomenon of the darkening of the hair strikes most sharply on the attention. Perhaps our satisfaction in this particular piece of evidence of rejuvenation is due to the fact that it is an objective proof; something visible to the eye, tangible; something for which we are not required to take anybody’s opinion, but can trust our eyesight for the fact of it. It is something in which the psychic factor, the feelings, the imagination, the auto-suggestion, does not enter at all, and that is why it is exceedingly well worthy of note. Looking back over the years, and casting up in your minds all the people of sixty and seventy years of age whom you have known, can you put your finger on a single one whose hair turned in color from white to dark and at the same time from thin to thick? You probably cannot. Nor can the writer. It is reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the goat-glands alone have done this thing in the case of Mr. Ernst.

CHAPTER VI

THE STORY OF CHANCELLOR TOBIAS

We must go to the pages of The Chicago Evening American of date August 18, 1920, for the story of Chancellor Tobias, written by Lloyd Lehrbas, of the American staff, with a brief introductory note, as follows:

(Here is one of the most remarkable news stories ever published in any Chicago newspaper. So startling is its detail that The Chicago Evening American in the interest of absolute accuracy submitted it to the person most concerned for his approval, so there can be no question concerning the facts, scientific or otherwise. Other men and women involved are not mentioned because the facts being established in the most important case, it is not considered necessary.)

Goat interstitial gland operations have been successfully performed on J. J. Tobias, Chancellor of the Chicago Law School, and thirty-five other Chicago men and women by Dr. J. R. Brinkley, of Milford, Kansas, who has been in Chicago for the past six weeks, performing the operations every day.

An alderman, a well-known political figure, living on the Gold Coast, a judge, a prominent real estate man, a newspaper man, three women, one of whom is well known on the North Shore, and other Chicagoans, have found the lost Fountain of Youth as a result of the 49 miracle-surgeon’s transplanting the revivifying interstitial glands of a goat into their human bodies.

48

THE BRINKLEY HOSPITAL, MILFORD, KANSAS, U. S. A.

The story of Dr. Brinkley’s knife magic is the story of a surgeon’s study and experimenting for nine years, ending with the successful accomplishment of the gland operation performed on thirty-six Chicagoans, who are alive and healthy today.

The complete story, with laboratory data, the name of one of the prominent patients, and an authorized interview with Dr. Brinkley is told for the first time in The Evening American today.

Successful on Women. Proof that the operation has been successful on women as well as men makes the story of increased interest. Until now it has been the general conception that the operation was successful on men only. A Chicago woman is now supremely happy because, after years of hoping, the operation has made it possible for her to become a mother.

Five months ago, Chancellor Tobias was, in his own words, played out. His years of teaching in the Chicago Law School had reduced his vitality.

Chancellor Tobias went to Dr. Brinkley’s hospital and submitted to the operation in order to relieve arterial congestion in the brain, caused by two attacks of influenza, a year apart. So serious had become his condition and so severe the attacks of vertigo and high blood pressure, that his attending physician informed him he was in imminent danger of 50 death. The planting of the interstitial glands in Chancellor Tobias’ body relieved the congestion and fully eliminated the cause.

Purged of All Ills. Today he has dropped the years from his shoulders, purged his body and brain of ills, and stands revivified.

“I feel like a youth again,” the aged chancellor said today. “I’m a new man.”

The stories of the other Chicagoans who have been benefited by the operation read like fiction. They were ill, they were old, they apparently were beyond the skill of the surgeon’s knife, or spiritual hope. Now from their own lips come paeans of glorification for restored vitality and youth, all due to the humble goat and the surgical skill of a country surgeon.

Tobias’ Own Story. Today I called at the law school in the Monadnock Building to see Chancellor Tobias and get the story from his own lips. The reports seemed too rosy. The facts seemed overstated. The results appeared to me unduly magnified. But here was a prominent lawyer who had the operation performed. Here was assurance there would be no buncombe from him.

An alert, peppy, gray-haired man sprang up to greet me, his eyes, the eyes of youth, his step firm and sprightly, his handclasp steady and strong. And yet he was 71 years old!

“Do you really feel younger?”

Twenty-five Years Younger. Chancellor Tobias threw out his chest, squared his shoulders,—and smiled. “I feel twenty-five years younger. I’m a new man, strong, and good 51 for twenty years of work,” he replied. “I was ill, old, and played out, but the operation has completely revivified me.”

“How does it feel to have been old, and then become young again?”

“Glorious!”

Was “Played Out.” And here is Chancellor Tobias’ story of the fountain of youth.

“After teaching for twenty-five years in the Chicago Law School,” he said. “I was played out. I suffered intense headaches. My eyesight began failing. There was a constant ringing in my ears. Dizziness came with increasing regularity. Mentally and physically I was an old man. Then I heard of Dr. Brinkley.”

Chancellor Tobias went to Milford, Kansas, as a last hope in March of this year.

On March 26 Dr. Brinkley selected a two months’ old goat and removed the interstitial glands. They were placed in a solution at body heat and taken to the operating room. Dr. Tobias was given an anesthetic. Dr. Brinkley leaned over the operating table, made a quick, accurate incision, planted the goat gland, and fifteen minutes later the operation was over.

Eyesight Improves. “Four days after the operation,” the Chancellor continued, “the headaches had disappeared, and my eyesight was greatly improved. And seven days afterwards, I left the hospital a new man.”

One month after the operation Chancellor Tobias wrote to Dr. Brinkley: “I really feel twenty years younger. My health has 52 improved wonderfully. I have regained my lost vigor and vitality. I’m a recreated youth.”

And today even Chancellor Tobias’ fellow faculty members, many of them nationally famous attorneys, admit that Dr. Tobias has improved 100 per cent.

“Almost Unbelievable.” “I hesitate to speak of this,” Chancellor Tobias said. “It is so wonderful it is almost unbelievable. The public cannot appreciate what the operation means. There has been some levity over the news of the gland operations, but it should be treated with the greatest respect and admiration. The operation has been a success on me so I am in a position to speak authoritatively. It is one of the greatest things of the century.”

Among the other thirty-five patients who have been successfully operated on are many well-known to thousands of people in Chicago. Here are some typical Chicago cases omitting names:

Policeman ——, aged 60, suffering from chronic diabetes and a general breakdown, which was about to compel his retirement from the force. Operated on August 9. Left the hospital yesterday feeling like “a new man.”

Alderman ——, aged 55, chronic asthma sufferer. Operated on April 26. Asthma had disappeared by the time he left the hospital. Declared he felt years younger and is now completely revivified.

Mr. G——, newspaperman, aged 39. Suffered from complete nervous breakdown from overwork. Operated on April 25. Resumed 53 work almost immediately, full of pep, and today is the picture of health.

Judge ——, aged 58. Premature old age from hardening of the arteries. Operated on April 28. Because of his wonderful improvement in health has changed his mind about retiring from the bench.

Operation Painless. “Ignorance about the gland transplanting is almost universal,” I told Dr. Brinkley. “I know nothing of it. Tell me how it is done, why you use goat-glands, all the whys and wherefores, so the readers of The American will have some authentic information. Is the operation painful?”

“No,” Dr. Brinkley replied. “It is a simple incision with very little actual pain. In practically all cases a local anesthetic is used. A general anesthetic is used only in exceptional cases.”

“How long does the operation take?”

“Fifteen to twenty minutes. It is as simple as grafting new shoots on a fruit tree. No part of the human gland is removed. The goat-gland is simply planted to take the place of the old gland.”

“And the hospital confinement?”

“One week, to rest the patient and allow the gland to begin functioning without undue exertion.”

“Any danger?”

“None whatever. It’s like grafting on a piece of skin. There is absolutely no danger.”

Eliminates Disorders. Lost youth is regained, according to Dr. Brinkley, as a result of the revivifying fluid secreted by the transplanted 54 gland, leading to the elimination of organic disorders that are hastening old age.

Dr. Brinkley explained in detail:

“I began my experiments nine years ago, and began using goat-glands three years ago in the interstitial gland operation because the goat-glands resemble to a large degree the human glands in their histological make-up. The interstitial glands and the blood, of a goat, are a very close approach in their constituents to those of a human being.

“Old people are simply broken down. The goat-gland secretes the fluid that builds up the brokendown parts of the human body. Eyesight improves 50 per cent. If a man is underweight he will gain to normal, and if he is overweight he will reduce to normal, showing that the goat glands actually function.”

Chronic Diseases Cured. “Chronic skin diseases are cleared up. Stomach trouble disappears under the new gland’s guardianship of the body. I have the laboratory data, the scientific records, and the actual revivified patients to prove it. The only unsuccessful cases are certain people whose blood lacks necessary essentials, and they are few.”

Dr. Brinkley gives Dr. G. Frank Lydston of Chicago credit for performing the first gland transplanting operations.

Lydston Is Pioneer. “Dr. Lydston is the pioneer,” Dr. Brinkley said. “He was the first man to transplant glands from a human to a human. I have never transplanted anthropoid ape glands, as Dr. Voronoff of Paris, and only in three cases human glands, as Dr. Lydston, 55 and I was not pleased with the results in those three cases. I was the first to transplant goat glands. Dr. Serge Voronoff has performed the operation on only two human beings. He failed to give Dr. Lydston credit, although it is obvious he followed Dr. Lydston’s book.”

****

This completes Mr. Lehrbas’ interview. In the same paper, The Chicago Evening American, a month later, date of September 15, appeared the following account of another visit to Chancellor Tobias, written by Edward M. Thierry:

J. J. Tobias, chancellor of the Chicago Law School, told me it was none of my business how old he is. He’s got a goat-gland sewed into his innards and I was trying to get some personal Ponce de Leon statistics.

“I’m over 50,” Tobias conceded. “How much I won’t say. But I will say my clock has been turned back from ten to twenty years! Just look at me!”

He jumped out of his chair—er—friskily. That’s the only expressive word. Tobias is little, thin and wiry. His face wrinkles up and his teeth flash when he smiles. He has grey hair and talks with quick jerks—as if his energy is running a race with his tongue.

“I’m rejuvenated,” Tobias said. “Time will tell whether my goat-gland will make me live longer. I had that operation on last March 26, and I’m still living. I’m no decrepit old man, either.”

Tobias was operated on by Dr. J. R. Brinkley, who has caused a furor in medical circles 56 through his many successful goat-gland operations.

Critics of Dr. Brinkley make Tobias tired. Get his goat, so to speak. He says he knows what he’s talking about, for he was formerly lecturer in a Chicago medical college.

“Seventy-five years ago my father had a little German machine,” Tobias said, “called the ‘life waker.’ It was a disk as big as a dollar with a lot of needles in it. You jabbed it into the small of the back and waked life that way. We can laugh at that archaic system, for it was crude. Now we’re more scientific. Witness the transplantation of goat-glands.”

Tobias said he went to see Dr. Brinkley at Milford, Kansas, to investigate his goat-gland discovery because of long suffering from congestion of the brain arteries. Doctors had told him he was in danger of death because of severe attacks of vertigo and a high blood pressure.

“The operation,” Tobias said, “occupied about 20 minutes. Within three hours after the operation the goat-gland began to function, the congestion was relieved, and within three days the cause was eliminated.

“I am a new man physically, with new mental vigor, and a new power of sustained effort. I can distinctly sense the function of a new gland in my body.”

It must have functioned muscularly, for when I left Tobias gave me a knuckle-crushing grip which made it necessary to write this story with my left hand.

These newspaper articles are printed here without change, in spite of evident repetitions, because of their evidential value. It is an old trick of the public press in the United States, and probably in Europe also, to start a sensation with a blazing front page story, and in the course of a few weeks follow it with a complete and sarcastic expose of the whole matter as a baseless fabrication, piling facts on facts to show that the first story was an ingenious piece of deception got up by the subject with the purpose of making capital out of the credulity of the public. There are no better detectives in the world than newspaper men. They work for the love of it. An expose is dearer to the detective-instinct in them than a laudatory article, and they leave no stone unturned to get at the facts. When, therefore, after the lapse of months, the newspapers of the United States repeat and confirm their first stories about Dr. Brinkley’s work it means something to one who knows their methods of working. Money cannot buy this sort of publicity. There must be facts, and facts of value, and facts verified again and again, before stories of this kind appear and reappear in the great organs of publicity in all the big cities of the United States. How far they carry, and how wide-reaching is the interest, will be understood by the statement that the announcement of Dr. Brinkley’s work, printed first in American newspapers, and copied in the English papers, has brought him urgent requests to visit South Africa, Australia, Sweden, Scotland, and many other 58 countries. From England in particular come requests from women that he do not fail to make a journey to some part of Europe in the summer of 1921, in order that they may take the operation with a view to bearing children. This he has arranged to do about June of this year, expecting to find in England a climate during the months of June, July and August, which will not be too hot to prevent him from transplanting the goat-glands. He does not operate at his hospital in Kansas during June, July and August, on account of the heat, having found that when the outdoor temperature is high the glands will certainly slough. The high temperature without seems to create a high temperature for the patient, and the result is a wasted pair of good goat glands, with loss of time and money to all concerned. In England in the summer it should be necessary to wait a few days only for right climatic conditions to present themselves, and be sure that they will do so. There are the further matters of a supply of goats of the right Toggenburg breed, a place to keep them, in close proximity to the operating hospital, and the hospital itself, to be dealt with suitably in the shortest possible space of time after arrival. The supply of goats can probably be best procured direct from Switzerland through some London importer, and the other matters will no doubt fall easily into place. The goats must not come from a high altitude, or their glands will not contain a right amount of iodine. This is curiously important. Dr. Brinkley cannot use goats from Colorado for 59 that reason. If the doctor’s reception in England is cordial he will probably make his visit there an annual summer affair of three months’ duration for some years to come, which would give him an opportunity of keeping in continued touch with his English and European patients. The English are a practical people, and less sensitive than we to, or more careless of, ridicule, and they are likely to grasp the importance of Dr. Brinkley’s work on the instant of his arrival, compelling a long visit.

CHAPTER VII

PROFESSOR STEINACH AND THE RAT

Writing with vivacity and humor, Mr. Clarence Day, Jr., speculates with so much whimsicality upon the possible effects of surgical rejuvenation of men that one might overlook the keenness of his observation in a hurried perusal of his article. For the sake of preserving it for more leisurely study, and because the points raised are really worthy of attention, the article is reproduced here in full, with acknowledgments to The Literary Review, in which it first appeared, of date November 20, 1920. Says Mr. Day:

Biologists really seem to be discovering ways of making men young again. So far, it is like making men drunk; the state that is produced does not last. But it looks as though they might succeed in adding a chapter to life. I wish it could be added to the other end: to youth instead of to the last flickers. But if we can renew and re-live middle-age, that will be better still.

A man named Steinach, in Vienna, has been experimenting for ten years with rats. Full accounts of his work were published last summer in the great biological journal founded by Roux, and these were summarized and discussed by the London Athenaeum, which is now the most interesting of all English weeklies. It is from the Athenaeum’s account that I am taking these facts.

Steinach has been studying the interstitial cells that fill in the spaces between the tubules of the testes, in males, and between the follicles of the ovaries in females. His reason for choosing these cells for his experiments is that they are a well-spring of life. Furthermore, since all our vital functions are interrelated, to make these cells active gives the whole organism new life and strength. This is not the only way of stimulating the organism, but it seems the most powerful.

An old rat is like a senile old man; he is bald and emaciated, his eyes are clouded, his breathing is labored. He stays in one place, with bent back, and has small interest in anything. If you cut one of his genital ducts, however, which is a comparatively slight operation, it has the effect of making the interstitial cells multiply actively. Waves of life flood his being. Within a few weeks he is transformed. These currents restore and rebuild him; skin, muscle and mind. Both in looks and behavior he is indistinguishable from other strong rats.

He has cast off old age. Senility, which sets in with men when they are from sixty to eighty years old, begins after twenty to thirty months in a rat. He is then about through. But when an operation is performed on a senile rat he gets from six to eight months’ new life. In other words, the addition to his normal span is 20 to 30 per cent. That would be a large fraction of life for a man to live over again. The rat lives it vigorously, eagerly, back in his prime.

When senility again comes upon him it is in a modified form. His organism as a whole is in better shape. It is his mind now that tires. As Steinach has already cut one or both of his genital ducts, that method of stimulating his cells cannot, of course, be repeated. But another operation is ready. Some unfortunate young male is deprived of his testes by Steinach, and these are implanted forthwith in this hoary old rat.

A second spell of active life follows, not so long as the first. It ends in acute psychic senility. The rat goes all to pieces. It is as if the brain, twice restimulated to emotion, curiosity, keenness, had approached the very limit of its running, and was completely exhausted.

Steinach has not yet tried whether a third rejuvenation is possible. That remains to be seen. He lives in Vienna, and everything there has come to a stop. He has no assistants, no funds, with which to conduct further experiments. “May happier lands or cities carry the work on,” he writes at the end.

It seems as though some rich American ought to stake the old boy.

****

Steinach has naturally found it more difficult to give new youth to females. But here, too, he has in a measure succeeded. X-ray treatment and ovarian transplantation are the methods employed.

As to human experiments, there is a colleague of Steinach’s named Lichtenstern, who has operated on numerous men and women 63 with apparent success. There has not been time yet to measure how long their new lease of life is to be; but they have regained the joy of life they had lost—strength and powers of work. Still, all this needs confirming.

In a rat it is the sexual impulses that are directly reanimated. He again knows the fevers of courtship, the conflicts of marriage; and whether he is glad to repeat these commotions depends on the rat. In man, however, the sexual impulses are more or less sublimated, so that the new energy may appear in any of the other forms of psychic activity. Whatever such faculties he has in him once more grow strong.

****

How wonderful it would be if we could at least prolong certain lives—great writers like H. G. Wells and Conrad, great artists, great doctors. But in practice, the men who would get hold of this would be John D. Rockefeller and W. J. Bryan. The rich uncle would walk in and tell his hopeless heirs he had been to see Steinach. Senators would live forever. The world would grow harder for youth.

Even were we able to control all this, and reserve the boon for the best, would it work? Say we did choose the right men—is it not too intimate a suggestion that we should set a man of science upon them, prepared with a little knife to slice one of their genital ducts? Men have fought all these years for the right to live. Have they no right to die? Must an old man who is needed by the public be condemned to live on, his aged cells stirred and 64 restirred while we glean his brains bare? Some Socrates of the future may yet envy that other his hemlock.

****

This, we say it regretfully, is the end of Mr. Day’s article. It is admirable fooling. We will not pay his wit the poor compliment of taking him seriously at the last and pointing out to him that it was Heine who said, “Nobody loves life like an old man!” There will be no need of insistence to urge the old men, useful or useless, to submit to an operation to renew their youth. But it is to be hoped that they will never be asked to submit to the cutting of the genital duct. It seems to the writer that The Athenaeum must have misconstrued Dr. Steinach’s experiments in some degree, inasmuch as it is difficult to conceive of the operation of severing a genital duct as conducive to cell-formation. However, probably ligating is meant instead of severing. But this is not the point really brought out by Mr. Day’s clever article. The real point is, Is it likely that if Mr. John Jones takes Dr. Brinkley’s goat-gland operation for the renewal of his youth, and thereby adds thirty years to his life, and at the end of this thirty years of friskiness undergoes a second transplantation of glands, thereby gaining twenty years more, and at the end of this twenty years takes the operation a third time, securing a further lease of gaiety for ten years, will the final years of Mr. John Jones be years of acute psychic senility, as observed by Dr. Steinach in his rat? To the writer it seems a non sequitur. 65 The cases are not parallel. The rejuvenated rat appears to regard his acquired vitality as impelling toward revelry and excess. It is necessary to emphasize the point that the pith and marrow of Dr. Brinkley’s discovery is that since it is clearly shown that rejuvenation is accomplished by the restoration of activity to the sex-glands, therefore the preservation of this rejuvenation MUST depend upon the CONSERVATION of the seminal fluids, and cannot depend upon any other single factor whatever. It has been already explained that Dr. Brinkley puts it out of the power of the rejuvenated man to destroy the good that has come into his life, and protects him against the danger of yielding too freely to passionate impulse, by preventing the escape of the rejuvenating agent. The means of nourishing the body and brain being therefore insured as to supply, it is not reasonable to suppose that the nerve-cells of the rejuvenated man can fail to receive their proper nourishment for many succeeding years, and, passing by the rat as a fallacious parallel, we cannot see any good reason why the human body and brain, either under the guidance of self-control, or surgically safeguarded against the waste of excess, should not function at their best for fifty years of added life, with very possibly another fifty added to that. The real crux of the matter is the resistive quality of tissue, which is approximately 200 years for such organs as kidneys and heart, and, say, 150 for nerve-substance.

64

THE OPERATING ROOM AT THE BRINKLEY HOSPITAL

CHAPTER VIII

A WEEK AT DR. BRINKLEY’S HOSPITAL

The writer, approaching the age of 54, and finding himself in first-class physical and mental condition, except for a high blood pressure, which was certainly the prelude to a later arterio-sclerosis, decided that he would be doing himself a service, and put himself in a better position to write with some authority upon the effects of the goat-glands, if he took the operation.

On Saturday, April 16. 1921, Dr. Brinkley operated on him at the hospital, Milford, Kansas, transplanting the glands of a three-weeks old male goat. He remained in bed Saturday and Sunday, got up and went for an auto drive on Monday, and passed an uneventful week at the hospital, returning to Chicago on Saturday. He experienced a marked increase in mental energy, which might have shown itself also as increased physical energy if it had been put to the test. This feeling of added pep, snap, energy, or what you please to call it, could be psychological in its origin if it were not for the fact that it is continuous, with no set-backs. Every student of psychology is aware that auto-suggestion has the power to bring out latent energy, raise the drooping spirits, and generate a feeling of well-being. But the student, if he is a reasonably close observer, is also aware that these improved 67 states of feeling have an annoying habit of being offset by corresponding periods of depression, and though he may persist in his effort to lift himself out of the black moods with such success that he finally arrives at a higher tone-level mentally, with a corresponding physical improvement, there is indubitably a strong sense of effort needed for this good result. When, therefore, the writer finds himself working long hours day after day with no sense of mental fatigue, but a certain unusual gaiety of heart accompanying the successive days, as if life were on the whole rather a lark, he, being accurately introspective, and not easily deceived into optimistic conclusions, is forced to give the whole credit for this change of spirit to the functioning of the new glands, and he is confirmed in this conclusion by the fact that the high blood pressure, which was noticeable enough before the operation, cannot now, ten days after the operation, be detected by him at all. Ten days is all too short a time in which to write of details in a matter of this importance. He expects to be able to confirm improvement in eyesight by the middle of May, and will be in a position to speak at greater length on the matter after the summer has passed. The intent of this chapter is to give a brief account of something he saw at Dr. Brinkley’s hospital during the week of his treatment.

Two weeks before his arrival a man suffering from locomotor ataxia had been carried in, unable to help himself at all. When the writer saw this man and talked with him he was up 68 and dressed and walking about, without a cane, and he left for home after a total stay of something less than three weeks. In parting from him the doctor said, “You are on the high-road to complete recovery. I expect to hear that you are getting stronger every day. Practice in walking will bring back to you the old confidence and banish the helpless feeling that you are sure to fall. You see that you can control the motions of your feet and legs now as you could not before. Sensation has returned to the soles of your feet, and you can now turn yourself over in bed, which you could not do before without assistance. This means that the brain, spinal cord, muscles and will are co-ordinating again. This means that the goat-glands are actively working, dissolving scar-tissue, and bringing you back to health. But it is asking a good deal of a pair of goat-glands to do as much as they must do in your case to bring about complete recovery. I would rather give them some extra assistance. If you will come back to me, therefore, next Fall, to this hospital, I will put two new goat-glands into you; and I believe that with this extra help you will go right through to a complete cure without any trouble. The operation will not cost you a cent. I am anxious only to complete the good work. I may be wrong at that, and it is possible that the glands you have now will be enough to do the work, but if they do not, come back here for two more next Fall. Don’t forget.”

This man had been everywhere for relief, and had taken every treatment known for his 69 disease, with no results whatever, as he told the writer. “This is the first time for twelve years,” he said, “that I have had any feeling in my feet. I am surely going to get well at last.”

In another case of the same disease the patient, when he came to the hospital, was taking morphine daily to relieve the lightning-pains. He could not stand upright with his eyes shut without falling, and if spoken to suddenly was likely to lose his balance and fall. He had not walked without a cane for several years. Twenty-four hours after the goat-gland operation he said that the pains had left him, and voluntarily stopped the morphine. In two weeks he was walking five miles before breakfast, without a cane to help him. He left the hospital a cured man. There has never been a case of true locomotor ataxia cured by any means whatever, in the history of man, until this Kansas surgeon, Dr. Brinkley, found the cure for it in this transplantation of goat-glands. Ataxia is an after-math of syphilis, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, and it is a question, which no layman can solve, whether the cause of the ataxia is in the disease, or in the mercurial treatment used to combat the disease. Another age, following this, may decide that the disease, syphilis, is less destructive of human tissue than the cure, Mercury. However that may be, the fact remains that goat-glands will cure Locomotor Ataxia, and they are apparently the only means of cure hitherto discovered.

The writer talked with some of the townspeople of Milford regarding Dr. Brinkley’s 70 work. Their attitude was detached, but on the whole affirmative. They could not, as they put it, doubt their own eyesight, implying that they would do so if they could. They had seen case after case carried into the hospital, and they had seen those same people walk out and go their way to their homes. It was queer, they said, and wagged a critical head. So true is it in all parts of the earth that a prophet hath honor save in his own country! Here and there, however, the writer found a townsman who had nothing but words of praise and admiration for Dr. Brinkley’s work. These always proved to be people who had had some relative under Dr. Brinkley’s care at the hospital, and they were intelligent men who could give their reasons for their conclusions. They were proud of the lustre which Dr. Brinkley’s Goat-Gland work was shedding upon the name of their village. Most of the townspeople, however, seemed to think that Dr. Brinkley should be proud of the town. Their engaging surliness of demeanor with regard to the miracles being performed in their village was a fascinating study to a city man, who saw here at its best the typical small-town attitude towards the big local thing. It is not peculiar to Milford. It is universal. It is as true in England and France and Belgium and Germany as in any little town in the United States. What do you suppose the country villagers thought of Fabre, the great French naturalist, probably to be hailed by the next generation as the greatest figure since Darwin? Without doubt they thought him mad, and if kindly, 71 pitied him, or if savage, despised him. Meanwhile it is quite certain that the work of Dr. Brinkley has put the town of Milford, Kansas, on the map, and, if you do not find it on the railroad map you may some day consult, it will help a little to say here that you go from Kansas City, Missouri, by the Union Pacific Railroad to Junction City, Kansas, and from that point change to a little branch line which carries you to Milford. The depot at Milford is about a mile from the village itself. You will find an auto at the depot which will carry you to the hospital, where you will be met by Dr. or Mrs. Brinkley, or Miss Lewis, the Head Nurse, and where you will be very comfortable if you decide to make a stay of a week or so for personal reasons. The food is good, and the Kansas air fresh and bracing and plentiful. Winds are indeed common, but the village is safely out of the track of the Kansas cyclones, and the storm cellar is unknown. The hospital is spotlessly clean and a marvel of completeness in equipment. The preparations for the gland transplantation are simple but thorough; a test of spermatic fluid, a blood test, a test for blood pressure, a blood count, and a purgative the night before the operation, with no breakfast on the morning of the operation. You will eat a good lunch in bed, however, on that day, and miss no meals afterwards. Briefly, the writer can say honestly that the pain of the operation is no more than the twinge of a toothache.

CHAPTER IX

SUMMARY

Dr. Brinkley’s employment of the goat-glands for the past three years of continuous operating, therefore, has proved to his satisfaction and to that of his patients that the testes in men and the ovaries in women furnish a secretion which has the property of a revivifying fluid when restored to the system by the currents of blood and lymph. In that commonly fatal condition of the arteries which follows rapidly upon the state of blood pressure known as hardening of the arteries, or arterio-sclerosis, a practically incurable condition hitherto, the results obtained by the goat-gland transplantation are miraculously swift. When the arteries are, as the doctor puts it, “as hard as pipe-stems,” they grow in a few weeks, sometimes in a week, soft and pliable. The change, according to Dr. Brinkley, is brought about in the walls of the arteries themselves, and is not a process of dissolving the accumulations or deposits of calcareous material within the arteries. The change is in the material of the walls of the arteries, producing a return of the condition of elasticity, permitting expansion and contraction as in youth.

It is a favorite theory with some modern writers that the physical change from youth to age is accompanied in the body, and in a sense caused by, the deterioration in the quality of 73 the cells of the body, and they call this change a breaking-down process by which the finer and more highly differentiated cells, such, for example, as the nerve-cells, and others which have high and complicated duties to perform, are displaced by cells of an inferior type, which they name conjunctive cells, much as the common sparrow drives away the songbirds from the home garden and, usurping the place of the songbird, substitutes a wretched twitter for the golden notes of the warblers which once delighted our ears. The common cells, also, on usurping the place of the nobler cells, are unable to perform the difficult duties of the latter, and the result upon human organism is disorder, decay, disease, etc., contributing to, if not causing, the condition of old age. This is an ingenious but not convincing theory. Our knowledge of histological processes is too incomplete at this stage to permit its acceptance as fact. It assumes too much to be known which is quite unknown. Moreover, it refutes itself upon examination in this particular, and in several others, that if it were true that these inferior cells are on the lookout to invade instantly any part of the human organism in which there was a breaking down of nerve-tissue, for example, then it would be impossible to build new nerve-tissue to take the place of that which was destroyed, because its place, according to this theory, has been already taken by an intruder who cannot be dislodged. But new nerve-cells are constantly being rebuilt, and constantly being put to use in the organism. If this theory were true, then 74 a brain in middle age would be unable to function because of the impossibility of renewing its cells.

A much more reasonable and probably true explanation of the cause of old age is the gradual disappearance of animal matter in the bones and tissues, and the corresponding increase of the mineral matter in the bones and tissues, amounting to ossification of cartilage, whereby the supple cartilage, losing its animal content, becomes practically bone by deposit of lime particles. This would also account in a common-sense manner for the fragility of the bones of the aged, the brittleness being due to calcareous deposits in the substance of the bone itself, in excess of the normal mineral contents of the bones in youth. The function of the seminal fluids, therefore, appears to be to restore to the aging tissues this property, this animal matter, which when in its right ratio and proportion in the cells of the organism produces the condition of youth. The action of these seminal fluids, therefore, seems to be two-fold, a dissolving and a nourishing. The distinction should be clearly made that the action is NOT merely stimulating. The stimulation of a nerve-cell is a temporary excitement. We speak of the stimulation of alcohol, and this illustration gives a clearer view of the difference between the nourishing action of the seminal fluids and a stimulating action than we could obtain by the employment of many words. It is interesting to remember that while it is possible to increase the mineral particles of soda, potash, lime, iron, 75 silica and magnesia in the blood and lymph, it is practically impossible for us to increase the animal contents of the cells by any method of medication or dieting known to us. Only Life can produce this change in the cells, and only this method of gland-transplantation has furnished a means of impressing Life into service to work for us in this matter. To produce the effects which are needed to rejuvenate a body that has increased its mineral matter at the expense of its animal matter we require the co-operation of glands made active, because only the glands, in the marvelous chemistry of the body, are able to compound the animal substances required to nourish the cells, tissues and organs of the body, and to dissolve and remove those injurious substances of a mineral nature which have accumulated in excess in cells and tissues, usurping the place of the animal matter in the cells because of the inactivity of function generally, and the poor elimination of waste matter, as the years pass. This is the re-creative and rejuvenating work of the gland secretions. It is beyond us to say exactly what these secretions consist of. We know the importance of their presence in blood and lymph only by the disasters that follow their absence. The thyroid gland and parathyroids, for instance, seem to be connected by some close sympathy with the activity or non-activity of the interstitial glands, and the atrophy of one is often accompanied by the atrophy of the other. The subject is still hidden in darkness to the extent of insufficient knowledge on our part of the exact constituents 76 of the active agents in the secretions of the testes, thyroids, suprarenals, pituitary and other glands. Time and further opportunity for experiment are needed to show to what extent the goat-gland transplantation can be used to remedy goitre, epilepsy and the graver lesions of paralysis. The use of the goat-glands is too recent to admit of anything but speculation on these points. There would seem to be no good reason to doubt that if the male organs of a young goat do rejuvenate the atrophied testes of a man, which Dr. Brinkley has abundantly proved they do, the thyroid gland of a young goat might be expected to restore the atrophied thyroid of a human being. This again is only conjecture, Dr. Brinkley’s work up to the present having been confined to the transplantation of testes and ovaries. But he expects to find time during the present year to satisfy himself of the results of such important experimental work as is here indicated. It is possible that his visit to Europe this summer may be the means of enlarging his field considerably, although it would appear that if he had six pairs of hands and could keep all employed in continuous service he could scarcely cope with the demands upon his time which any and all countries of the earth may be expected to make when his work is known. In ten years, no doubt, gland-transplantation, particularly goat-gland transplantation, for the renewal of youth in man and woman will be so usual as to occasion neither wonder nor hilarity. But we are not living ten years from now, but at this present 77 moment, and Dr. Brinkley’s operation to-day is a marvel, a wonder and a joy. There is a satisfaction in being in the van. It is fine to be the first to do a big thing, especially if that big thing is something of the most practical value to humanity. Mankind has always crowned its great generals, its great destroyers of life. Here is a man who comes forward to preserve life. That is his mission, if you like. Certainly it is his life work. It is a noble work. The question in the writer’s mind is, What will they do to him? How will they take him in England? Will they applaud, or crucify, or neglect? Probably they will show him something of the generous hospitality of England, and leaven this with a plentiful sprinkling of ridicule, because the subject of the goat lends itself to humor of the obvious kind. But it is our belief that the hard, practical common sense of the Anglo-Saxon will lead them to make the utmost use of this opportunity of his visit, and, having got him, it is to be expected that they will know enough to keep him. This is quite as much their opportunity as his. While they sharpen their wit upon the sacrificial goat and make merry, they are pretty sure to make full use of his knowledge and skill while they have him with them, and might make things so pleasant for him that he might say, when the summer is over and he looks back upon the white cliffs of Dover, returning to his own country, “This is a good land. I have enjoyed the trip. I like the people. I will return next summer, and for many summers thereafter.”

CHAPTER X

THE SPARK OF LIFE

By J. R. Brinkley, M.D., C.M., Ph.D., Sc.D.

Chief Surgeon, Brinkley-Jones Hospital and Training
School for Nurses, Milford, Kansas

(Written October, 1920)

For many years scientists have believed that a part, or all of the glands of the human body influenced longevity. They believed our glands contained the “life spark.” Men for hundreds of years have been seeking the “fountain of youth.” Ponce de Leon when he landed in Florida and saw the beautiful springs and flowers thought he had found it, and so announced to the world. Long ago we learned that the pituitary gland influenced growth and development. For instance if the pituitary gland over-functioned we had Giantism. If it under-functioned the opposite was the result—a dwarf. If the thyroid gland was at fault we would have either the low mentality commonly spoken of as cretinism, or myxedema. We found that by feeding children the fresh gland substance a marked improvement would be obtained and sometimes a cure. Some years ago there was a surgical craze which called for the removal of the women’s ovaries. It was thought that many nervous troubles, including epilepsy, etc., were due to diseased ovaries, so the surgeons removed ovaries just about as promiscuously as tonsils and teeth are now taken out. 79 After a while they found a woman without ovaries was about ruined, so something had to be done, and ovarian extracts and substances were fed to the unfortunates. Good results were obtained so long as the feeding process kept up, but if the feeding was stopped, the miserable symptoms returned. One factor was always in evidence, that a woman who had no ovaries never menstruated again. Premature change of life (menopause) resulted. Ageing took place early. A loss of interest in the pleasant things of life existed. As a wife or companion for the home the woman was worse than useless. Her life was so miserable that all who came in contact with her were made miserable, also. She was unsexed, and one of the “sparks of life” had been taken away. She assumed characteristics of the male. If the testes of a man are removed he will assume the characteristics of a woman. Many changes will take place. His mind is no longer clear, he tires easily, cannot concentrate upon any subject, and has marked loss of memory and of physical well being. The things that once appealed to him are now undesirable. The opposite sex are repulsive and he shuns their society. A man or woman who suffers the premature loss of their glands of regeneration will become more or less defective mentally and their life will be materially shortened.

At one time a favorite expression was, “A man is as old as his arteries.” We know better than this now. A man is just as old as he feels, when said feeling is directed to his sex organs. The first sign of old age is impotency, and more men are reaching a premature impotency 80 than ever before in the history of the world. Their glands are burning up, as it were. After impotency is well on its way arterio-sclerosis or hardening of the arteries is noticed, then the mental inefficiency, as well as physical weakness. Right on the heels of impotency comes prostatitis. I was taught in medical school that nearly all men suffered from an enlarged prostate and prostatitis: that it was one of the diseases of “old age”; that we were heir to it and might expect it to show up after the age of 45. I was also taught that arterio-sclerosis was another disease of old age, and all men were heir to it. However, we are beginning to awaken to a few things. We are approaching the dawn of a new day. We are beginning to understand the whys and wherefores. While I have been criticized and called everything under the sun, except an angel, I expected as much, and I am ready to face the world with my facts; not theories. I have a long and hard fight before me yet.

The cures that I have effected by gland transplantation up to the present time are enough to justify me for all of my work and efforts along this new line of science. Should I never operate again, I feel justly repaid and know that I have started something that will go on and on and live forever. Gland transplantation for the cure of disease within the next ten years will be as common as the removal of a diseased appendix is now. You can hardly pick up a daily paper without reading an account of some surgeon performing a wonderful operation of transplanting bone or tissue from some animal to replace that which was diseased 81 in the human. Why not borrow what we need from the animal? We use their flesh for food. We also use their gland substances in the fresh or dried form to supply our bodies with whatever we may not possess.

80

THE TOGGENBURG GOATS

My first efforts in gland transplantation were directed towards the cure of sterility. A man came to me who had been impotent for sixteen years. Every known means had been used in his case. My experiments in the use of glands from animal to animal, led me to believe that if the gland from a goat could be transplanted into the human body this impotency and sterility could be overcome. This man was willing to try anything as he was 46 and his wife was 42. They were very anxious for a male child. Twelve months after the transplantation I delivered his wife of a 10-pound baby boy, who is alive and well today. In appreciation of what the goat glands had done for them they named the baby “Billy.” He lives within four miles of me now. This first case being a wonderful success encouraged me to experiment with humans on a larger scale. Willing subjects were not easy to obtain. After obtaining, it was difficult to operate. The operation or experiment could not be performed in any of the general hospitals. Ethics as well as country and little town gossip forbid such work. It was necessary for me to build a hospital of my own so that my experiments could be carried on without the public or profession knowing anything about them. If good results were obtained I could announce to the world; if none were obtained the matter could be dropped. After four male children had been 82 born, due directly to gland transplantation, the news leaked out, and has swept the world like wildfire. While I was transplanting glands for sterility, other beneficial effects were noted by me as well as my patients. Now, since I have transplanted glands into more than 600 men and women it is an easy matter to give some comprehensive statistics. A complete record is kept of each case and follow-up letters are used so that we are in a pretty fair way to estimate just what we are doing. Five cases of insanity have been cured to date. The great difficulty in obtaining insane people for operation is, they are confined in a state institution, and the authorities will not permit their removal, especially when their loved ones tell the “higher ups” they wish Dr. Brinkley, “the gland man,” to transplant goat glands. “Oh, no, it’s all rot and will never do!” However, we have operated upon five cases and have cured five cases. After awhile we will break down this great wall of prejudice, and insane people will be ordered out for this operation. At present when habeas corpus proceedings are all that will obtain the release, and gland transplantation is the object, not much of a chance exists. I am going to mention one of our very interesting cases, as the man lives only about 15 or 20 miles from me in Dickinson County, Kansas. His name is Lon Jones, and his case is known far and wide within the state of Kansas. My writing about Mr. Jones will not be the betrayal of a professional secret. He is anxious for the world to know about it. Some six weeks or two months before I was called to see him he was stricken suddenly, insane. He had mounted his horse and was driving 83 his cattle home for the night when it was noticed by others that he acted “queer.” He began to whip and fight his steed as well as the cattle unmercifully. He dismounted or fell off his horse and at first was thought unconscious. A physician was called, another, and another, and his case was diagnosed as Dementia Praecox. Violent in character. He wanted to kill his doctor, or commit some rash act. One of the first acts was to try and give away all of his land and stock as well as corn and feed.

It was unsafe for his wife and children to be near him. Men remained with him, day and night. Finally his guards had to tie him in bed. His arms and feet were securely fastened, as well as his body, to a heavy iron bed. Application for his entry into the state institution had been made when I was called. With the assistance of neighbor men he was conducted into my hospital here. Immediate gland transplantation was performed, and three days after said operation he asked me to remove his irons so that he could rest comfortably. He informed me that he was in his right mind and we need have no further fear of him. Soon afterwards he was permitted to roam around the building and over town. He went home more than a year ago and is transacting his business as a sane man should. No evidence of his former trouble has occurred. He did not know until the day that we discharged him what my line of treatment had been. Another notable case was that of a man who had spent 11 years of his life in three state institutions for the insane in New York. He 84 left here entirely cured and is now holding an important position in New York City. Another case was that of a young man who became insane suddenly. His first act was to try and murder his father and mother, his greatest bitterness being directed towards his mother. He attempted to kill me when I approached him, and it was necessary to open a bottle of chloroform and stand at a safe distance and throw the anesthetic in his face and eyes. Less than a week after the operation he was in his right mind, and has been so since. Another case of a young man who became insane and was violent. He secured a number of rifles and shotguns and barricaded himself in a corn field. When he learned I had been sent for he was worse than ever, and if it had not been for his mother I would have been killed. I operated upon him immediately, and for one week after the operation I could not visit him. However, he soon was in his right mind, and when it was told to him what he had done he went to Indianapolis, Ind., and secured a position. His shame was so great that he could not remain where he was known. After two years he returned home and resumed work where he had left off. The fifth case was just as interesting as the above.

I have operated upon and cured 5 cases of locomotor-ataxia. It is almost impossible for me to get cases of locomotor-ataxia. When a man writes me he also asks his family physician, who very quickly informs him “there is nothing to it; it’s all bunk!”

My cases have ranged in age from 18 to 75 years. My patients that are from 60 to 75 85 years of age write me they feel as they did when they were boys 18 years of age. I have transplanted glands for almost every conceivable disease and have received splendid results in almost every case. All cannot be cured, but all of them can be greatly benefited. At this writing I have with me as a patient a noted United States Senator from Washington, D.C. He has been treated by Dr. Cary T. Grayson, the president’s personal physician, as well as taking 3 years of treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is depressed and discouraged. He speaks of suicide. He has been operated on only two days and I venture to say that before his week is passed he will be a different man.

My greatest number of men come for impotency, next for prostatitis, and many for a general improvement in health. Many come with but one purpose—to prolong their lives. I believe that those who receive gland transplantation will live much longer than without it. Possibly as much as from 10 to 25 years can be added. Then successive transplants can be made, and we have no idea how long they will live. Their skin takes on the appearance of youth. I know that after the ovaries have been transplanted into women who have none their menses return on a 4-day period regularly. Women who had passed the menopause have a return flow. Hardening of the arteries as well as high blood pressure are returned to normal in 100 per cent of the cases. Eyesight is improved from 50 to 100 per cent. A well-known judge was operated upon by me a short time ago, and his eyesight was so much 86 improved that he could no longer wear glasses of any kind. Men who had not heard for 16 years write me that since gland transplantation they can hear the tick of a watch. In women a development of the bust is noted and the wrinkles disappear from their cheeks. Chronic constipation is cured as well as old chronic skin diseases, such as psoriasis, eczema, etc.

With the best will in the world I am unable to describe on paper just how my fellow practitioners should perform this operation, because I never meet with precisely similar conditions in any two cases. I can say positively that I do not know just what I shall do until the case itself is under my hands in the operating room. The operation is simple in itself, but in my early days of operating I made a number of mistakes because I was on new ground, and there was no authority from whom I could learn the technique. Now, after my six hundred operations have taught me what to do and how to do I am able to avoid these earlier mistakes, and as a consequence I hardly ever have an operation that is not a success. Not very many months ago I was called to San Francisco to re-operate on a number of cases which had gone wrong in the hands of a fellow practitioner. I re-operated on these cases successfully. The surgeon who had performed the operation in the first place is skilful and experienced in all lines of surgical work, but in this particular line of transplanting of goat-glands into human bodies in such wise that the tissue of the goat will blend with and nourish the human tissue no living man except 87 myself has had the necessary experience to teach him through his successes and failures, what to do and how to do it. Nor should I be successful if today, in spite of all the work I have done with the Goat-Glands, I should relinguish the goat-gland in favor of the human-gland or the monkey-gland. Results have taught me that I made a wise choice in pinning my faith to the young goat as the healthiest possible animal from which tissue could be used for transplanting into human bodies. The goat is immune to practically all diseases. The human being and the monkey, on the other hand, are liable to tuberculous or some tropical disease. For his splendid work with human glands I give full credit to Dr. Frank Lydston of Chicago, who was not only the pioneer in this use of human glands, but actually made his first transplantation upon himself. This is but another instance of that fine confidence in our beliefs and convictions which is typical of the medical profession as a whole. In the use of the human-gland Dr. Lydston is as supreme as I am in the use of the goat-gland, and you must understand that in saying this I am not throwing bouquets at myself in idle vanity. I have a clear cold reason for saying this. I have devoted my life to this particular work, and have brought it to a point where I can speak with authority upon it. I foresee that because of the marvelous results obtained by the transplanting of the goat-glands at my hospital there will be a great awakening of interest in this operation on the part of the public and the medical profession. A great many operations of a similar character will be performed 88 not alone in this country, but all over the world. A great many of these operations will be unsuccessful because the experience of the operator will not have taught him what to do under certain unusual conditions, or rather, what to do under any and all conditions. In the face of an unsuccessful operation this work will be blamed, and the theory upon which I work, namely, that the sex-energy is the basis of all human energy, physical and mental, will be given a setback, and scouted as untrue. But I am constantly proving its truth by the results I get, and find its confirmation in the effect of successful goat-gland transplantation in both men and women. Therefore I am urgent in saying that the work must be rightly done in the first place to obtain right results.

Briefly, the operation for men means that the glands of a three weeks’ old male goat are laid upon the non-functioning glands of a man, within twenty minutes of the time they are removed from the goat. In some cases I open the human gland and lay the tissue of the goat within the human gland. The scrotum of the man is opened by incision on both sides under local anesthetic. Conditions of the case may show that there are adhesions of tissue which must also be broken down before the new gland can function. I find that after being properly connected these goat-glands do actually feed, grow into, and become absorbed by the human glands, and the man is renewed in his physical and mental vigor.

The operation upon women means that the ovaries of a female goat not more than twelve months of age are removed and inserted into 89 the woman. If the woman’s organs are sound and merely inert and atrophied, the new ovary will find its way to its proper position and begin the work of restoring the arrested functions, so that the act of menstruation, for example, which has ceased because of the atrophic condition of the woman’s ovaries, begins again and continues on a normal twenty-eight day period. The effect of the new glands upon women is even more noticeable, if such a thing were possible, than upon men, since in their case the rejuvenation is more striking in the changed appearance. But though I claim much, and with good reason, for this operation, I warn against undue expectations. In many cases I advise against the operation as a sure waste of time and money. In many cases I explain that the results will be experimental only, there being nothing in my experience to warrant assurance of success. For instance, in blindness and deafness I have no faith that this operation will remove the disease in spite of the fact that in almost every case operated upon there is great improvement in the sight and hearing. But I have no certain knowledge why this improvement followed. It partakes, therefore, of the nature of an accident. In the case of very fat people the operation trims them down to normal weight. Very thin people are built up to normal weight by it. Barren women and impotent men become mothers and fathers. But in no case do I permit a grandfather or grandmother to entertain the hope that they may be rejuvenated to such an extent that they can procreate again if they wish. This is mere romance, with which I have nothing to do. Nor 90 do I advise a young woman of forty who has not reached the menopause stage to take the operation if she is in good health, in spite of her belief that the goat-glands will enable her to remain indefinitely young. This is experimental work, and is not in the same class as the case of the same woman who has just passed through her menopause and ceased to menstruate. By all means I advise the latter to take the operation because I feel that it will rejuvenate her. If a woman has had both ovaries removed by surgical operation, will this operation grow new ovaries for her, and enable her to become a mother? At this stage of my knowledge my answer is, “Certainly not.” If a man has lost both glands by surgical removal will this operation grow new glands for him? Nine times out of ten, “No.” The tenth time, “Yes.” I do not know why.

I can use only a certain breed of goat, a Swiss milk goat, and only animals of a certain youth. My goats cost me about $75 each on an average, and that is one reason why it would be impossible to conduct this work as a free surgical clinic might be conducted, unless the undertaking were specially endowed with funds to meet the expense.

Some time in the month of June I expect to make a trip to London, England, and will be away possibly until the end of August. Even the month of May in Kansas is sometimes too hot for this operation to be successfully performed, and I make it a rule to suspend operations entirely throughout June, July and August. Experience has taught me that when the outdoor temperature is high the operation 91 will almost certainly be unsuccessful, and on account of the cost involved, as well as for the saving of time and trouble for the patient, it is in the highest degree unwise to go contrary to this rule. If the glands are transplanted during very hot weather they will almost certainly slough, which means re-operating later.

In many cases that are brought to me I do not operate or even advise that the goat-glands be transplanted later. I cannot go into details of such cases in these pages, but might cite the case of a man, syphilitic, who was sent to me. Certainly I have never made the statement anywhere, at any time, that this operation would cure syhpilis. The man is being treated now for syphilis, and should not have been sent to me at all.

I quote the case of a woman of forty, who is normal in every way, and the picture of health at the present time. Her desire is that she may never grow to look any older than she does at this moment, and she asks me if this gland-operation will hold her at the point she has now reached. Frankly, this is pure experiment. I do not know. After another ten years of work in this gland-surgery I might be able to give her a definite opinion, but not at this stage, seeing that my oldest cases go back only three years. On one point only I can speak with positiveness, namely, if I cannot answer this question there is no man living who can answer it, because I am the only man alive who can give an opinion on this work that is founded on first-hand knowledge. We learn in this work only by experience, and we draw just conclusions only from quantity of 92 experience. No other man alive has had this experience in sufficient quantity to justify him in forming a conclusion derived from his facts. This is my answer not only to those who listen to encouraging advice regarding the effects of this operation tendered by surgeons who are embarking in this goat-gland operation, but also to those general practitioners who inform patients asking their opinion in the matter that the operation is useless because the glands are certain to slough, I hold that they are not qualified to speak on the subject because they have no knowledge. I have the most positive knowledge that when the operation is rightly performed the glands do NOT slough, and my knowledge is founded upon the hard facts of much experience. In another ten years I shall know more than I know today because I shall have added to my facts, and among those facts there may be some which confirm the hope of the woman of forty alluded to above that this gland transplantation may hold the condition of youth steady as something static, which will not be suffered to pass. At present I do not know, and if I offer an opinion it is to be understood that it is only a guess. My guess, then, would be that in this case the operation would be a waste, producing no effect whatever, neither adding to nor detracting from the condition of health and normal function which is present today.