SCIENCE AND LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 6

SCIENCE AND LIFE

TRANSFER OF &LANDS

DR. VORONOFFS CLAIMS

A SCEPTICAL SCOT

(From Our Own Correspondent)

LONDON, 23rd March.

Dr. Serge Voronoff, the celebrated .surgeon, in a lecture in Paris on gland transplantation, disclosed' many ' new facts in connection with recent developments resulting from his experiments. What promises to be a revolution in cattle and sheep breeding is foreshadowed in some of these experiments. Dr. Voronoff has obtained a larger breed by grafting an extra gland. He started his experiments in 1924 by grafting an extra gland taken from perfectly healthy.sheep on to other sheep slightly younger. The results were a. revelation. The sheep grew larger and stronger, and over two pounds more wool could be taken from each fleece. There was one drawback. If to attain the result each sheep had to be grafted individually, the discovery would be of scientific, but not of economic interest, owing to the expense involved. : .

Five months ago lambs were born to the parent members of the "force" breed. Their progress was watched with feverish interest, and now 'at five months the lambs are on an average 81b heavier than those born of "unforced." The experiment has been completely successful. . ■

Dr. Voronoff' is now waiting til] he can graft fresh glands on the offspring of treated sheep, not because he wijhes to.breed sheep as big as : oxen, but to obtain, the,maximum quantity or' wool per fleece. The ■ experiments have been carried, out under the supervision of the French Ministry of Agriculture, so that the accuracy-of the information cannot be questioned. The British Ministry, of Agriculture has already become interested in the: matter, and Dr. Voronoff has ■ received a request from New Zealand to. send an expert out there to give instruction in his method. Dr. . Voronoff explained that early eicpe'riments in gland grafting ,had failed owing to the impossibility of forming a connection between the blood-vessels of the body and the introduced gland. But this difficulty has now been.overcome. - ; PROLONGING OFvLttßi V In the course of his leeWje'Jibr.'; Voronoff said he saw absolutely no reason why men in, the near future ahould not be able to live until the age of .125 or 140 years. During the! whole of ;their lifetime .they ought, by . gkrid' transplantation, to .enjoy-the fullest mental and bodily healths Old'age would be sudden and short; and-'after; "three month's or "less 'of .decrepitude",, .they: would pass painlessly away.. " " Dr. Voronoff said that he had carried out 1000 experiments in connection with transplantation of endoerinal glands from monkey to man, and that they were almost all successful^ In the case of a. well-known Spanish surgeon he had been given permission to make a second operation to see how the transplanted gland was progressing, and he found it in full, life and vigour. That meant that it had become thoroughly acclimatised^, as otherwise it would have vanished.

"Old age," Dr. VoronoS pointed out, "is nearly always caused "by the wasting; away or ageing of the glands of tho body. The brajiij thef''-heart, the lungs, and muscles arc-strongly constituted, but the glands.are weaker..Persons who have been graftei-rrdnd most; of them are- men ,of. high ■.■intellectual calibre—always declare that their first impression is one of greater mental clarity, and in cases where the memory has become defective it is found after the operation that the brain has regained its retentive qualities."

The eudocriual gland was not the only vital gland which could be transplanted. There was the thyroid gland, intimately connected with the brain, which had been transplanted. There was also the mysterious para-thyroid gland, .the absence of which had been proved in dogs to set up violent convulsions resulting in death.

"Not long ago," Dr. Voronoff said, "a youth of 19, living at Florence, was seized with convulsions. Tho diagnosis of :i famous Italian doctor was that he wus suffering from an atrophy of his para-tyliroid gland. I'■went to Florence with one of my monkeys, and carried out the appropriate! operation, and the young man is now in perfect health."

Operations for: grafting new glands for affections of the heart, the doctor | stated, are in progress and are giving satisfactory results, though they are of a very difficult nature. TEST WITH A SHEEP. The test of sheep gave a.good idea of how long the effect of transplanted glands would possibly last in mankind. A sheep aged 12 years} which had almost reached its extreme limit of i old age, became lively and vigorous until the ago of 20 without any further operation. It then suddenly collapsed into senility and died within fiye days, i This meant that by the operation its age had been increased by nearly twothirds of its normal span. V

There appeared one serious draw-, back to the transplantation of glands. This is that whereas mankind numbers hundreds of millions there are only a few hundred thousand monkeys. "It :. for that reason," Dr. Voronoff said, '•that I am trying to see if monkeys can be made to breed well and quickly in suitable captivity. When wild, monkeys do not increase so quickly be-, cause of all the natural dangers which i surround them. I set up my' monkey home at Mentone in November and already have.a baby-monkey. ', "I can see the time when the whole of the coast from Naples to Marseilles will be devoted to the rearing of monkeys for the benefit of mankind." A message from Bordeaux since the above lecture was delivered states that monkeys, valued at £1200, destined for Dr. Voronoff's monkey farm at Mentone, which were being brought from French Guiana, have been stricken with sickness. When the ship reached port only two were alive. ' EXPERT SCEPTICAL. Dr. F. A. E. Crew, the director of the Animal Research Department of Edinburgh University, who has been conducting similar experiments to'those of Dr. Vorouoff, comments on tho news received from Paris.

"There is nothing really novel in the suggestion that implantation of such tissue forces development and incraeser, fleece growth," he says, "but it is. somewhat strange, in view'of the claim that'the addition of a gland is associated with extra weight of fleece, that there are no observations which show that really significant weight differences exist between the ram from which glands have been removed and the entire rain. "

"It has to be stated that, ,in the absence of careful investigation, it is impossible to accept the suggestion that, after this gland implantation has been practised upon the sires of one or two generations in succession -with manifest benefit upon growth, rate, and fleece development, "these effects are exhibited by all their descendants successively in the absence of surgical' intorfereuce upon the individuals of each generation. ' •

"Such a conception cuts right across thfe conclusions arrived at by a great

company of experimentalists working m l irv IVv rt- CUaar field °* biological in- ' ,w*-? 1S not, to Sa^ that ™c «»*« imphcity or exphcity would wish to question the good faith of a scientific colleague. It implies nothing more than that I, for one, am honestly sceptical. I will accept the claims when I am satisfied that the experimentation was scientifically planned'and conducted, and that tie results can be secureU by similar experimentation by others equipped with the same .technique a. Dr. Voronoff possesses. Being B ceptical and critical, not only of the"" conclusions of others, but especially of my own,' I want to know, among other things, the pedigrees of the sheep that I are used, the amount of variability in the characters of the fleece of Algerlau sheep generally, and the conditions of the experiment, wth special reference to such matters as the chemical constitution of the pasturage and the humidity of the climate; in short. I want to know whether the experimentation was critically controlled. ' If it was not so.conducted, then it loses most of its value." -'■• 85, Fleet street. - -;