FATAL “YOUTH" GLANDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16471, 6 July 1921, Page 3

FATAL “YOUTH" GLANDS.

REJUVENATED MAN S DEATH, PERPETUAL YOUTH QUESTION, Irony and tragedy enter into Nature’s dramatic protest against the much-discussed thyroid gland treatment for the renewal of youth (says a London paper). _ Mr Alfred Wilson, who at the age of 70 was recently operated on by the discoverer of the treatment, and has been its chief advocate in England, was found dead in bed a few hours before he was to havo addressed a meeting in the Royal Albert Hall on : “ How I was made t 2O years younger by the method of Professor Stein acli, of Vienna.” There is an unravelled two-fold mystery in the death of Mr Wilson. A verdict of death from natural causes was returned at the coroner’s inquest, after 3>r A. Kennedy, the dead man’s medical attendant, had declared that death was duo to too great blood pressure, otherwise angina pectoris.; that the post-mortem had disclosed no signs of injury; and that all the organs of the body were quite normal. There was no scar on the body sucli as would be left by an operation. It is known that the operation Mr Wilson underwent did not involve the grafting of monkey or thyroid glands. The double-edged mystery therefore presents itself: ‘ 4 What * was the operation to which Mr Wilson submitted himself? What is the nature of the fatal contingency involved in rejuvenating operations? PATN IN THE SIDE. Dr Kennedy stated at the inquest that Mr Wilson came to him and complained of a pain in the left side, saying, “ I wanted to show someone how strong I was, and hit myself in the chest.” Mrs Krugen, in whose house Mr Wilson lived, stated that he was away in Vienna the beginning of tlie year for eleven weeks, and returned a changed man. “ He told us he had an operation,” she said. ‘ ‘ He was very excited over the lecture he was to give in the Albert Hall, but came back to the bouse on Tuesday, after visiting the hall, saying that all the arrangements were perfect. He complained that night of a pain in his chest, and I took him a glass of hot water to his room. On Wednesday morning I went to call him, and found him dead in bed.” £7OO OPERATION. A cousin of the dead man, Mrs Charlotte Bennett, declared that the cost to Wilson of the Vienna trip and the operation was £7OO. 4 •' To me,” she said. “he was quite altered when I saw him a week ago. He did not look the same man. T thought he looked much younger. T think he told me the operation was in his side.” Mr Alfred Wilson had spent most of his life in Australia, where he made a fortune as a shipbreaker. He was a widower, and had no children, but adopted two girls in Australia. Before lie went to Vienna he was of a quiet, retiring disposition and spent most of his time reading in his lodgings. After his return he was always out and about, full of schemes to spread tlie news of his perpetual youth.

FALLACIES. 1 ‘ These reported rejuvenations are all fallacious,” said a leading medical man. “The treatment by thyroid or similar preparations as practised on the Continent is purely a medical ‘ stunt.’ No doctor of repute would, adopt it in London. , There is the gravest possible danger in administering too much thyroid to a patient. The patient outwardly appears much younger. He or she has the aspirations, activities, and appetities of youth. The mind is active and often fantastical in its ideas. The colour is heightened, the pulse quickened, and the blood pressure increased. 44 The condition of excessive thyroid is medically known as exophthalmic goitre. The arteries, weakened by age, cannot withstand the abnormal blood pressure, and suddenly death comes from angina pectoris. 44 We have found no way yet by which, the old can be made young. Those who go searching for perpetual youth are chasing a myth. They canpot escape the Great Reaper. They in ay only bring ‘death nearer.” Miss. Connie Ediss. the comedy actress, wbp tried the monkey-gland treatment, fflftd : —“The thyroid is not supposed to make you live for over. If a person has reached a certain ago, thyroid cannot rejuvenate the tissues which are gone, but it gives one more strength. ft has not made me look sixteen again, hut f feel younger.”

The ratio of accidents in French aviation in 1920. was one to 62,500 miles flown, and the fatal accidents worked out to one for every 101.871 miles. The second monthly tournament of the Harewood Card Club was concluded on Saturday night. Mr Price won the first prize with a score of 70, and M> Taylor and Mi King tied for second with 08. In the play off the former won. Songs were contributed by Messrs W. Taylor, G. Olaridge and T. Dixon, and a. recitation by Mr O. Price.