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 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, 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 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 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 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.