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 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 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, 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 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 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."