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 hydrocèles, 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.