The Goat-gland Transplantation Part 2

Scientists who formerly ignored Dr. Brinkley's letters are now writing to him asking him for exhaustive reports of his work. The sarcastic att.i.tude 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 advertis.e.m.e.nt, 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 a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical a.s.sociation, the Missouri Valley Medical a.s.sociation, the Kansas Medical a.s.sociation, 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 s.c.r.o.t.u.m 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 Wa.s.serman 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 Wa.s.serman, 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 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 j.a.panese, 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 quant.i.ty 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 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 benefit at all. The sciatic trouble was bad enough, but to this you must add loss of memory, hydrocele, kidney trouble, constipation, no appet.i.te, 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 astonis.h.i.+ng s.e.xual vigor. For 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 interst.i.tial 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BRINKLEY HOSPITAL, MILFORD, KANSAS, U.S.A.]

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 Sh.o.r.e, and other Chicagoans, have found the lost Fountain of Youth as a result of the miracle-surgeon's transplanting the revivifying interst.i.tial glands of a goat into their human bodies.

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 death. The planting of the interst.i.tial 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 a.s.surance 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 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 interst.i.tial 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."