"MONKEY GLAND."

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 53, 4 March 1925, Page 14

"MONKEY GLAND."

A WAENISG.

NOT REALLY TESTED YET.

(By A HARLET STREET DOCTOR.)

When vanity cornea in at the door commonsense too often flies out of the window. That appears to >be what is happening , at present in. connection with the new treatments and the operations for the "'restoring of youtiv* On every hand promises are being held out and claims made. And large numbers of men and women are "paying high, prices for hopes," which, for the most part, are likely to prove illusory.

The truth ia that "monkey gland," as it is called by the irreverent, is far from being a certain cure for old. age or even middle age.

At the very' Best it is a scientific novelty, an experiment. And it may even, when, we know more about it, be found to be a futile experiment leading not to youth btrt: to decrepitude.

At present we know very little about it. TVII3 fact must be emphasised above all others.

Teats Still Insufficient. The sober truth, is that the first piece of monkey gland, ever engrafted on a human body wa3 engrafted in the year 192 ft. That-is to- aay r . <xxzr expedience of this treatment ia barely five years oH.

•Nα one with even an elementary knowledge b£ scientific work will dispute that this is far too short a period to justify anything more than a slender expectation. Tt affords not the smallest ground for the statement, now made, tfrat "monkey gland prolorigs life."

Even octogenarians may reasonably hope to- live five years without special medical treatment.

The second, fact which: ought to be known to everybody is that in the whole world the number of operations carried out* since 1920 in the course* of which monkey gland has been employed is very smalL I possess myself written records of only a very few, and I suppose that the total, at the time of writing, cannot exceed 100. When the Aged Feel Young.

This Ist too small a number to warrant any expression of opinion, especially when the very recent character of most of these eases is taken into account. tIt. may fee quite true— "am sure it is quite true —that some of the persons operated on have felt and looked much younger after their treatment.

Bat that, in reality, proves very little. Most of us have our tips and dovms. There are times ■when boys of twenty look like old men, and there are times, when old men seem to "renew their youth. 1.

Nature in these matters is apt to be capricious. She gives us "patches" of old age r in yoatbv and "patches" of youth in old age.

Moreover, fortune often lends Nature a helping hand. I have a patient who has recently escaped from a very threateningly financial position. I do nof exaggerate when "I aay that be looks twenty years younger than he did twelve months ago.

In other words, happiness and hope are great "youth restorers."

Hope the Beatorer. The old people who submit to monkeygland operations are always fall of hope —otherwise they would not put themselves to so much trouble and expense. Ihey expect to feel younger and stronger.

In that, ■without doubt, they resemble M. Cone's patients, -who go about telling themselves that, day by day, they are growing '"better and tetter."

11. Cove has no hesitation in saying that " expectations of this nature are bound to be realised. He believes that hope, intelligently applied to human infirmities, is a wonderful restorer.

If he is right, how are we to be sure that it is really monkey gland, and not jest hope and faith, which i 3 making the difference to the handful of old people •who have submitted themselves to operation and who now declare that they are growing younger and younger? No Promises —Yet. I am asking this question in no unkind spirit. I believe that the new studies of youth and age are of great value, and I hope that they will be continued.' But that is a different thing from wishing to see a rush of elderly people to obtain whac they suppose to be .an elixir of life. Such people had better save their money or spend it on remedies which have stood the test of time. According to the knowledge available at present, they are not likely to lose much if the '"autocoids" (as they are called) of the higher apes never flow in their reins. For it must not be forgotten that those men of science who have the widest experience of the new operations make no very extravagant claims about them. They all admit some failures and many merely "partial? , successes. They promise nothing. And without exception they take the view that enough time has not" yet elapsed to permit of positive statements.