186 GLANDS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



century. One may truly say of him that he is the 

 founder of the conception of ductless glandular 

 function as we understand it to-day. 



Poor Brown-Sequard! In glorious company 

 with other ill-received or unrecognized geniuses, he 

 became the laughing-stock of scientific Paris. He 

 described to his audience how he had administered 

 to himself testicular extracts, and how, as a result 

 of this administration, his vigor and youthful de- 

 sires and appetites had returned. (In 1889 when 

 this announcement was made Brown-Sequard was 

 70 years old.) The Academy laughed, and Paris 

 and the other capitals of Europe made the most of 

 a sensational piece of news. 



Was there any foundation for Brown- Sequard's 

 claim? From what we know to-day, not very much. 

 Not even the most enthusiastic exponents of "reju- 

 venation" by means of the sexual glands advocate 

 such a procedure. 



If the use of testicular extract proved discourag- 

 ing, it did not prevent the use of extracts from 

 other glands that produce an internal secretion. 

 And then came the truly remarkable discovery that 

 in myxedema and cretinism, examples of hypothy- 

 roidism, the administration of thyroid extracts 

 brought cures cures that lasted, to be sure, only 

 so long as treatment with the extract was contin- 

 ued. This discovery made those who had scoffed 

 at Brown-Sequard revise their opinion of that illus- 



