THE THEORY OF GLANDS

Evening Star, Issue 19917, 13 July 1928, Page 1

THE THEORY OF GLANDS

INTERVIEW WITH DR VORONOFF THE CAUSE OF SENILITY . SOME MISCONCEPTIONS. To the lay mind there is, in the accounts of tho experiments and operations ot Dr Sergo Voronoff, a suggestion of something revolutionary and far removed from ordinary medical practice; but expounding, in an interview with tho ‘ Observer,’ tho theories on which he has built, Dr Voronoff maintained that there was nothing that was revolutionary and little that was new. His operations are, ho says, only an application of principles long ago established and theories widely held. The monkey gland operation is, ho says, only a new form of what is known as opotherapy. The part the glands play in the physical system has for a long time been universally understood. As Dr Vorohoff put it; “ Outside the organs which preside over the intellectual, tho circulatory, the respiratory, and other functions tliere are other organs which act upon them from a mstance by means of substances which they pour into tho circulatory system. In this way they aro able to influence far-lying territories of the body, and even the whole organism.” These organs are the glands. It has long been recognised that they, by means of their internal secretions, act on the evolution of the cells, and are responsible tor tho health of the body. GLANDS AND LIFE. As long ago as 1889 Brown-Sequard, who has been called the “ father of opotherapy,” discovered that these secretions aro the same in animals as in men, and ho conceived the idea of treating such diseases as had been discovered to lie due to the atrophy of one or other of tho glands by giving the patient an extract from the same gland of a healthy animal. Thus pepsiuo has been used for many years as a remedy in dyspepsia to supplement the deficiency of digestive juice in the stomach; hono-marrow has been used for persistent antenna. The most striking results were obtained with the disease known as myxfoderna, which is caused by the atrophy of the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland,” said Dr Voronoff, “is like a sparking plug for tho brain.” Children who are sometimes horn without tho gland arc idiots. _ The sufferers from niyxoodema are little better. Their faces are puffy and expressionless, their speech slow, their hands shapeless and spade-like, their circulation slow. With such people thyroid extract has proved a valuable medicine. _ . “ But,” says Dr Voronoff, “ to imitate tho processes of Nature this substance would have to bo taken in minute doses constantly repeated for tho rest of one’s life!” It is for this reason, he suggests, that tho “ almost universal application of the methods of Brown-Sequard has not realised the hopes which it originally aroused. It was tho introduction later of grafting into surgery that made possible Dr Voronoff’s discovery, by which, instead of taking tho gland extract in the form of tablets—a clumsy and not very successful device—a healthy gland can be grafted on tho body to replace tho atrophied one. WHAT OLD AGE MEANS. So far the work of Dr Voronoff lias only been an extension in practice ol a principle universally recognised, but from this point he began to develop a theory of the cause of senility which is, perhaps, not quite so universally recognised. It would seem probabl?;, ho says, that one of the glands was made to elaborate some substance which would stimulate tho vitality of tho cells of the body; and if that were so tho advance of old ago, and especially of senility, would seem to indicate that its function had ceased; that, in fact, the glaud’s function was limited to a certain period of life. If, for example, that had been the mission of the thyroid gland, all men of advanced ago would become idiots; if tho para-thy-roid gland were to cease to function in the senile, death would always follow tetanic convulsions; if tho pituitary gland did not fulfil its function after a certain age, death would rapidly follow, owing to a retardation of tho respiration rata and a lowering of the temperature—and so on. “ During advancing age,” he said, “ tlii function of all these glands continues, doubtlessly weakened, but still present, and the organs do not stop pouring into tho circulation tho secretions which aro essential to life. Dne gland only—which is, of course, tho sexual gland—forms an exception to this rule. Are we to take it that this is a coincidence? ” “ REJUVENATION.” From this position the whole of his practice follows. His famous “ rejuvenating ” operation consists, as v c all know, in grafting the sexual gland of a healthy monkey on to the patient. He maintains strenuously that his object is not to reawaken the sexual desire in men. That, he says, does not always follow: but what always does follow is a physical and psychological change which is always for tho better. It is seen that from his theory tho vitality of the cells of the body and brain depends on tho internal secretions of this gland. After his operation he maintains that his patients are always mentally and physically improved; that they are in fact “ rejuvenated.” The operation, ho says, should take place as soon as possible after a man has passed middlelife. “ Middle-life ” for every man occurs at a different time; it may be comparatively early; it may be comparatively late. Ho says also that in many cases a graft has been made successfully on one patient a second time. A third craft has not yet been tried except on a ram. He said that, having treated 1,300 patients, he could point to a high percentage of success. With some, but not many, he had kept in touch for a long period after,tho operation., Others had apparently felt better, and gone their ways without communicating with him further.

NO FEAR OF ANIMAL INSTINCTS

It is clear, onco the theory is understood. that there is no danger, as •many people fear, that the result of an animal-graft might be the transference of animal instincts-to 1 the patient. It is the function, of the glands simply to encourage the other organs to act each accordingly to its own function. If the thyroid gland of a healthy man were grafted on to a decayed horse, tho horse would not think like a man, but it would bo enabled to use its own brain after its own fashion; the cells would bo revitalised; the horse would be more healthy, hut it would still only live and act through the organs of a horse.