Source: The Goat-gland Transplantation, by Sydney B. Flower and John R. Brinkley This etext is available at the Project Gutenberg website.
Historical Note: The Milford facility closed in 1930 when Brinkley's Kansas medical license was revoked. He then moved to south Texas and established his million-watt Mexican radio station.
Author's Preface
Though dealing exactly with a surgical subject, this book is a layman's word to laymen. It is an attempt to say to the general public a few things about this amazing work of Dr. J. R. Brinkley, of Milford, Kansas, which he is debarred from saying for himself in this simple form. He has under consideration a book of his own covering the subject of Goat-Gland Transplantation, his experiments, successes, failures, theories, and conclusions, which will probably be issued during the winter of 1922, and in that book he expects to treat his subject exhaustively with full medical and surgical detail, in a manner acceptable to the medical profession.
But, in the meantime, no satisfactory effort has been made to tell the story to the general public, except in the fragmentary form of occasional newspaper notices. The author feels that the chief interest in this matter abides with the patient rather than with the practitioner, or, if not the chief interest, at least an equal interest. It seems proper, therefore, that the subject should be briefly dealt with at this time, while it is yet in its infancy, in such a manner that the general public may grasp the essentials of what is being done in America in this new application of endocrinology. Some attention is paid to the pioneer work of Dr. Frank Lydston of Chicago in the transplanting of human glands into human beings, but rather by way of emphasizing the fact that Dr. Brinkley, with the choice of human, monkey, goat, or sheep glands before him, chose the goat-glands in preference to any other for his field of experiment and operation, and has never for a moment regretted his choice, or seen any reason to alter it.
Without any wish to enter upon a controversy, the author is impelled to take some notice of the statement of Dr. Serge Voronoff of Paris, who, during his recent visit to the United States, announced that he pinned his faith almost exclusively to the glands of the anthropoid apes as most suitable for transplantation into human beings, while he lamented the natural scarcity of obtainable material. Dr. Voronoff is credited with having performed over 150 transplantations upon rams, but none whatever of goat-glands upon human beings, and not more than two or three of simian glands upon human beings. His statement, therefore, that successful transplantation of the glands of the goat into a human being is "impossible, and cannot succeed," is empirical, and entirely unsupported by any experience of his own in the matter. Against it, and completely confuting it, we set the clear conclusions of Dr. Brinkley, backed by his unequalled record of over 600 successful transplants of goat-glands into men and women, during the past three years. Since there is no other human being who has had experience sufficient in this matter upon which he may justly found an opinion, it seems to the author that only one man, Dr. Brinkley himself, is qualified to speak at all, and until members of the medical profession here and in Europe have mastered Dr. Brinkley's technique, and learned what to do, and how and why, and what not to do, and why not, a dogmatic negative is not the proper comment with regard to the question of whether successful transplantation of goat-glands can be made upon human beings. If, after learning what Dr. Brinkley has learned by laborious experiments, continued for years, they find that their conclusions differ from his, they will at least have earned the right to speak. But it is unreasonable to suppose, in that event, that their conclusions would in any way or degree differ from Dr. Brinkley's conclusion that, in brief, the implanting of the glands of the young goat into men and women is an actual triumph of modern surgery and medical skill, which has resulted, in hundreds of cases, clearly recorded, and filed for reference, in rejuvenating both men and women; removing impotence from old men; curing arterio-sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, in every case treated; curing five cases of Dementia Praecox out of a total of five cases treated; curing six cases of Locomotor Ataxia out of six cases treated; curing two cases of Paralysis Agitans out of two cases treated; restoring normal conditions in one hundred cases of Psychopathia Sexualis; bringing about the parenthood of barren women and impotent men not yet past middle-age; restoring the function of menstruation or regular periodicity to women who have passed through the change of life; and, in a word, making good in the cure of so-called incurables, and doing something that was never done before, to our knowledge, in the history of the earth.
It is not the intention in this little book to follow Dr. Brinkley in exact detail through his amazing list of cases of all manner of diseases cured by this treatment. His files are open to the profession at all times, and the records may be consulted by the earnest investigator at the hospital at Milford, Kansas.
The intention in this little book is to cover particularly that phase of human longing which asks that the clock be turned back, and that old age be deferred.
It is a fact beyond all gainsaying that Dr. Brinkley's operation has in truth cheated old age of its toll in very many cases of both sexes, and the improvement, or rejuvenation, affects both the minds and bodies of those treated by this method; and this rejuvenation is lasting to the extent of the doctor's observation. It would be presuming to say that it is a permanent improvement. Upon that point no one has any right to offer an opinion, because there are no facts upon which to found it. But Dr. Brinkley's earliest cases, operated upon three years ago, up to the present time have shown no diminution whatever in the good effects secured. Neither the women nor the men have lost any particle of their increased vitality during this lapse of time. Who can say how long the good effects will continue? Dr. Brinkley's opinion is that the improvement will run for possibly fifteen years, at the end 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.
