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
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,
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.