Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-08-09
TINsLEY & MORTON, Proprietors,
FRIDAY MORNING. AUG. 9, 1889.
THE LATEST STEP IN THE MEDI
CAL WORLD.

THE LATEST STEP IN THE MEDE
CAL WORLD.
DR.. Brown-Sequard the famous Paris
physician, whose name is now in every
American newspaper in connection with
the discovery Of a new life giving" COM
pound, is not wholly unknown in Virginia.
Many of the older citizens OF Richmond
who were boys in DR.. Maupin's chemistry
class of forty years ago and who attended
the lectures at the Richmond Medi-
cal College, can, even to this day, easily
recall the Short stout little Frenchman,
apparently about forty years of age, who
was a Professor there. They will also
recollect the wild school boy stories of the
vivisection which he carried on, and which
to their young minds was exaggerated into
the difficult surgical feat of taking people
to pieces while they were alive, and putting
them together again. Andafew of them will
remember selling their rabbits and guinea
pigs, the former being largely in the major
ity, to the janitor of the College for the dis
tinguished professors use. 1t is this old
acquaintance, who since his Virginia
professorship, which, Richmond being too
small town for him, was very brief, has
become one of the most famous men in
Europe. His last success has been more
marvellous than any which preceded it,
and like all things marvellous has been
greatly exaggerated by the world. AS for
the Doctor himself he has been cautious
and conservative in his estimate OF his dis
coyery, and, while the laymen are pro-
claiming it as a nOstrum that restores
youth and prolongs life, he only claims that
it remarkably, but temporarily restores
mental and physical strength to the aged.
1t was the absurd claims of the laymen for
it, that made its first reception in this
country month ago, the signal for ridi
cule. Within the last few weeks, DR..
Brown-Sequard has read a paper on the
discovery before the Paris Biological Soci-
ETY. and has written letter to the London
Lancet on the same subject. The Elixir is
made of the life giving portions Of every
animals anatomy, though the discoverer
made his first from guinea pigs. These
portions are pounded in mortar and the
essence, which is the elixir of life, So
called, is injected into the limbs Of the
patient with a hypodermic syringe. The
London correspondent of the n. Y. Tri-
bune condenses from the Doctors two
published papers on the subject, the result
on himself and three patients as follows
''After applying these injections he was
able to stand for three OIL four hours in his
laboratory and to write in the evening for
an hour and half without feeling a sense
of WEAKNESS. Instead of creeping and hob
bling up staircase, as had been his habit
in recent years, he could run up and down
like boy. His arms, tested by a dyna-
mometer, regained a strength which they
had not possessed for twenty-six years.
Digestion and other functions were mark
edly improved, his facility for intellectual
labor was increased, and all functions de-
pending on the spinal chord and nervous
centres were notably and rapidly strength
ened. The three debilitated men, ranging
in age from fifty-four to sixty-eight, after
being treated hypodermically with the
vitalized fluid, do not appear to have re-
sponded quite so favorably to the treat
ment. Their digestion it is said, was i'm
mediately improved and their muscular
powers increased, but.another effect of the
fluid was to cause general nervous ex-
element DR.. Brown-Sequard remarks
on this report that sufficient time had not
elapsed to enable him to judge of the per
manent effects of the treatment of these
three patients. p" The experiments on the
three debilitated men were made by his as
sociate, Dr.. Variot, and the elixir was made
from the glands of young dogs and guinea
pigs.
Since these experiments Dr.. W. A. Ham.
mond, the distinguished specialist of New
York, has eenmaking similar experiments
procuring his elixir from lamb, which he
believes superior to any other animal. His
subject is decrepid old man, and the lie.
suits that the Doctor reports have been
exhibitions of returning vitality that seem
incredible. He reserves an expression OF
opinion on the permanency of it, for six
weeks. In DR.. Brown-Sequard's treatment
of himself he states that the effect of the
application of the fluid disappeared in about
month He does not claim more for his
discovery than that it is temporary, but OF
sufficient duration and Importance to give
the scientific world basis for further ex
periments, and that it will be useful in
making old age more bearable In his OWL
case the invigorating effect was obtained
by ten injections in twenty days, taken
every other day.