St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-18
RESULTS OF THE TEST.
Three of the Four Old Men Ben
Gifted hY the Elixir. of Life

Three of the Four Old Men Ben
Gifted by the Elixir of Life.
The elixir of life patients in this city
are progressing very finely, and if they
will only continue the same way, it is
very likely that Dr.. Brown-Sequard will
have some warm adherentS away up
here in the Northwest. Last Wednesday
Drs. Markoe, Woolway and Witherle,
All prominent practitioners; associated
themselves together ana tried the ex-
pertinent on four of their most aged
patients. The facts have all been chron-
icled in the GLOBE before, but
the results of the experiments
were not known until yesterday.
all of the patients were men, one was
SiXty-four years old, two of them sixty
seven and the fourth sixty-nine. One
had been troubled with Sciatic rheuma-
tism for over thirty years, a second was
BILE, third from heart disease and
chronic asthma, and the fourth was a
confirmed hypochondriac. The ply
sicians took every precaution to make
the experiments as successful as pos
sible. A young lamb, free from all
disease taintwaS secured, and the elixir
extracted from the glands was used
within three-quarterS of an hour from
the time that the lamb was killed.
None of the patients knew at the time
the nature of the remedy which was ap-
piled to them as the doctors desired to
give them no opportunity to work the
Imagination dodge. After the opera
ton the physicians left to await devel-
Opments. The next day the patient
who had been troubled with rheuma-
tism tor thirty years, and always used a
cane, came stalking into the Office of
one of the physicians as nimbly
as man of forty. He walked
without his cane, and declared
that he felt as Timber as ''young 'un,"
and that most of the pain had left his
joints. To say that the doctor was as
tonished was drawing it mild. 1t flashed
through his mind that perhaps DR..
BroWn-Sequardwas not in his dotage
after all. Then he thought he would
ton, so he said: "Have you seen the
papers?''
ooh, yes!" was the reply, 81 read all
about the elixir in the paper this MORN
ing, and am sure it is great thing. I'm
getting younger, doctor, there's no gain
saying it," r,.>e
The doctor mathematical the papers
under his breath, as the fact that the
man knew what he had been treated to
rendered it possible that it was only his
imagination that was working on him,
thereby destroying the opportunity for
a true physiological test. But the man
declared he had never felt so we'll in
his life, and he looked it.
Friday the doctors visited the institu-
ton where their elixir patients we're,
and found all but one feeling in high
spirits. That one was the hypochon-
driac. He was evidently beyond all
hope. When asked how he felt he at
tempted to smile. but the attempt died
away in the most lugubrious expression
imaginable as lie replied: Don't feel
we'll tall. Feel good deal older than l
ever did"
Rere was a clincher, but the doctors
did not despair, and were more than re-
paid by the replies of the other patients.
The rheumatic was feeling just as we'll
as he did on the day before, the one
with bladder trouble declared that he
felt ten years younger, and the gentle
man with the aSthmatic breath said he
had walked clear up stairs without be-
ing Inconvenience, and that his reSpir-
atory apparatus was in better condition
than it had been for years. 1t was
learned from the lady in charge of the
place that all of the patients had read
about the elixir and knew that they had
been treated to some of 1t. But they
had also read the accounts of people
who had been poisoned by the elixir.
and felt very much alarmed.
The doctors are inclined, under the
existing circumstances, to believe that
there really is something in the elixir,
because if the eXhilarating effect was
simply due to the Imagination, from
reading of supposed miraculous things
performed by the elixir. just the reverse
would be the case in reading of the ac-
counts which alarmed them. In view
of the fact that their imagination has
had opportunity to play in both drec-
tions and they still maintain they are
bettered, it seems as though some viz
tue must be allowed to the elixir itself.
The physicians will continue watching
the cases for several weeks, and will
not do any more experimenting until
they see what the results are.