A. REPORT 
UPON TWO HUNDRED EXPERIMENTAL CASES 
OK 
Injection of the Brown-Sequard Testicular Secretion, 
BY H. C. BRAINKRD, M. S. M. D., 
CLEVELAND, O. 
On the first of June last, Prof. Brown-Sequard made a communica- 
tion to the Societe de Biologie, of Paris, upon the effects producfcd on 
MAN BY SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTIONS OF A LIQUID OBTAINED FROM THE 
testicles of animals, which Report was published in the Copmtes 
Rendus of that society on June 21st. 
As would be expected, such a statement, emanating from a man who 
for a long lifetime has been recognized as the foremost physiologist of 
Europe, attracted general attention. 
Promptly a few prominent physicians began cautiously to investigate 
and experiment. Instantly the secular press everywhere flamed with 
starting headlines announcing the discovery of an Elixir of Life, f:tc. , 
etc. , and the lay public for a day was agog with excitement and nonsense. 
Many ambitious physicians made crude and dangerous experiments, 
experiments unscientific in procedure and unsatisfactory in results; while 
that large class of physicians who never make an original observation, 
and to whom anything of which they have not previously heard or seen 
demonstrated must necessarily be impossible,cried “Humbug,” “Fraud” 
and swelled the rabble cry “Crucify,” the echo of which for eighteen 
hundred years has greeted every new developement in religion or science. A learned writer has said, “Most of the conservative skepticism in 
the world is simply the easy refuge in which stupidity or craftiness shel- 
ters itself from responsibility.” 
The time ought to be fully come when the official or professional 
statements, even though they be startling or revolutionary, of persons 
who are recognized authority upon the point at issue, should receive at 
least respectful consideration. 
He is a bigot who, simply because a thing is not in harmony with 
his accepted traditions, instantly condemns and anathematizes. 
I heard the learned Prof. Cocker say that, through an interpreter, he 
told the King of one of the Sout Sea Islands, that in his country, at cer- 
tain seasons of the year, water in rivers and ponds became so hard that 
a man could walk upon it, to which the King promptly replied, “I know 
that is a lie. ” 
Socrates, against the knowledge and traditions of his times, asserted 
that the earth moved ; instead of his assertions being calmly investigated, 
he was promptly treated with calumny and death. 
When Harvey announced the circulation of the blood, he was ex- 
pelled from the medical society to which he belonged, and denounced as 
an impostor. 
Jenner’s statement of his theory and practice of vaccination was re- 
ceived with derision and jeers. 
Even in our own time, the discoverer of anaestheia was .stigmatized 
as an ignoramus and a quack. 
The ancient alchemists dreamed of a “philosophers stone,” and the 
transmutation of metals. More modern science laughed at the idea as a 
dream of folly ; conclusively teaching that each metal was a simple 
element, and transmutation impossible. But, to-day. in an article in the 
current number of a leading scientific journal, a learned writer says 
“Recent advances in chemistry and physics have shown that many sub- 
stances formerly supposed to be very different one from another, are now 
known to be identical, except in their external forms. The list of .so- 
called elementary substances are decreasing instead of increasing in num- 
ber. There is strong reason for believing that there is after all but one 
form of matter, which makes itself manifest to us under different aspects. 
He is an ignoramus that asserts that it is impossible that lead and gold 
can be identical. The fact is that outside the domains of mathematics 
and physics there are no impossibilities in nature. Things are regarded 
as impossible simply because as yet they have not been proven.” 
Fondly do we anticipate the day when a physician desirous to en- 
large his therapeutic armamentarium and add to classified knowledge by 
announcing his research with some new drug or remedy will not be 
deluged with ridicule and abuse. 
Experiments are necessary. Without honest investigation it is im- 
possible to “prove all things,” if happily we may, “hold fast that which 
is good.” Said Horace Bushnell on a certain occasion, “Enough, that con- 
sciously to myself it requires a much stronger balance of equilibrium and 
a much firmer intellectual justice, saying nothing of the necessary cour- 
age, to report these facts without any protestation of dissent or discredit, 
than it would be to toss them by with derision in compliance with the 
more conventional notions of the times ” 
The theory formulated by Prof. Brown-Sequard and the arguments or 
physiological statements advanced in its support are, we assume, familiar 
to you all. It is a trite saying that in reaching a practical conclusion, 
“An ounce of fact is worth more than a pound of theory.” Therefore,' 
without discussing the theory, we simply offer the sublimate of the facts 
that have been demonstrated by over two hundred carefully conducted 
experiments. 
'fhe fluid used in every instance, was taken from the glands of a 
young, healthy ram, which had been kept isolated for at least twenty- 
fonr hours and well fed. Allowing the theory of resorption, the sper- 
matic veins and vas-deferns were first carefully ligated as far from the 
testicle as practical before removal; after removal, the fluid contents of 
the spermatic veins was carefully expressed, the epididymis and vas-de- 
ferns were fully relieved of their retained semen which added to the pre- 
viously expressed contents of the spermatic veins, with an equal quantity 
of distilled water, was filtered through thin filter paper. Every vessel 
and instrument used having been thoroughly washed in a strong solution 
of corrosive sublimate and dried with alcohol, and the filtering conducted 
under glass Fluid so prepared, it was believed, contained all the desired 
constituents; under a powerful microscope, it presented no bacteria; and 
when used within six hours, in no instance produced local disturbance. 
In most cases, the hypodermic injection was made over the insertion 
of the deltoid muscle ; in cases of sciatica, over the sciatic nerve. The 
amount of fluid injected, varied from one fourth to one drachm. The 
number of injections given in individual cases varied from one to twelve. 
Many cases of simple general nervous and muscular prospration or feeble- 
ness. with no pronounced organic disease, showed positive benefit from 
tile first injection. Several cases of a hemiplegic or paralytic nature 
showed little or no benefit until after three or four injections, when im- 
provement became manifest. 
In a private letter of Aug. 15th, received from Brown-Sequard, he 
says, “An injection should be made at first every two days, and after a 
fortnight or two at least once a week.” 
'Pile experiments began Aug. 7th, and embraced a period of over a 
month. Of the two hundred patients treated, nineteen of whom were 
women, I am proud to say, nearly all are people of superior intelligence 
and education, many being well known professional and business "men ; 
all persons who are not imaginative, and whose statements as witnesses 
would be fully accepted in any court. 
ISt The CLASS OF CASES THAT RECEIVED NO REAL BENEFIT. Fore- most in this class naturally conies the long line of organic and structural 
diseases and decrepitudes ; patients whom every intelligent physician 
recognizes as being amenable only to palliative treatment, but whom 
tenacious in a hope of benefit, insist on trying the last new thing. Next, 
people of plethoric habit with good assimulation and abundance of blood: 
persons who carry the evidence of living well and easy, and whose indis- 
positions are more from an overcharged condition of the system than from 
mental strain or physical prostration. 
2nd. The class of cases most immediately and permanently 
benefited, as demonstrated in twenty-seven cases, are professional or 
business men of middle age, with capable and active minds, but physi- 
cally feeble ; comparatively free from organic disease yet possessing slight 
recuperative power, and quickly suffering weariness and fatigue. 
3rd. Specific Diseases and complaints benefited. Hemiplegia 
to the extent of dragging one arm and leg. Four cases, all very much 
improved by continuous treatments ; in two cases the benefit did not lie- 
gin till after the fourth injection. Locomotor ataxia, three cases ; these 
cases show the most pronounced and continuously progressive benefit of 
any of the experiments ; one, a well known gentleman, who walked with 
extreme difficulty has received thirteen injections and now “can walk 
straight with his eyes shut.” 
Muscular and sciatic rheumatism and lumbago. Five cases of muscu- 
lar rheumatism, all benefited ; the greater the suffering and difficulty in 
using the limb, the more pronounced the benefit. F'our cases of sciatica; 
two, suffering intense pain, affirm complete relief from pain ; general im- 
provement in all. Two cases of lumbago ; not so fully relieved as the 
other forms of rheumatism. 
Impotence, seven cases ; those resultant from mental work and worry 
much benefited ; those which were the result of long continued abuse or 
excesses received but slight benefit. 
Cases of insomnia caused by overtaxed mental conditions, hypochon- 
dria, melancholia, mental depression, feeble heart—without valvular dis- 
ease—cardiac asthma, spinal irritation, partial paralysis of neck of blad- 
der, and neuralgia of the bladder. All were surely benefited. 
Opium and whisky habit: two of the cases of sciatica were using 
morphia hpodermically ; one from three to five grains daily ; both report 
a complete cure. Two other cases of confirmed opium habit received no 
benefit. Three cases of business men who had contracted the habit of 
taking from two to five drinks of whisky a day to “brace up” on were 
able to stop it. One reported that not only did he not want the liquor, 
but it affected him as it would a man not accustomed to it. 
I11 no case were beneficial results followed by depressian or reaction. 
DEDUCTION. While this treatment fails in a per cent of seemingly 
amenable cases, yet in a large number it produces an amount of relief and 
benefit as pronounced as that produced by any other remedy or means, 
and in some cases the relief or improvement is startlingly apparent and 
agreeable. Yet its extremely perishable nature, and the difficulties and 
dangers which hedge about its production and administration tend to 
prevent its general application.