Organotherapy, British Physiology, and Discovery of the Internal Secretions Author(s): Merriley Borell Source: Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn, 1976), pp. 235-268 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4330654 . Accessed: 21/06/2014 01:04 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Biology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 01:04:35 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Organotherapy, British Physiology, and Discovery of the Internal Secretions MERRILEY BORELL Department of History University of California, Berkeley In April 1891, the Frenchphysiologist and neurologistC.-E. Brown- Sequard (1817-1894) and his assistant Arsene d'Arsonval(1851-1940) suggested to the Society of Biology at Paris that potent substances, which they called "internalsecretions," ought to exist in animaltissues, and that disease probably resulted from their lack. Brown-Sequardand d'Arsonvalproposed to their colleagues that one might discover these substancesby using extracts of specific tissues to treat certaindiseases. They argued that if a given condition could be successfully treated by the use of an extract, it was very likely that the condition was caused by inadequateproduction of an internalsecretion. In a brief note, they outlined a programof experimentaltherapy to searchfor these substan- ces.I Organotherapy,as this form of therapy came to be called, had origi- nated two years earlier in Brown-Sequard'srejuvenation studies. At a similar meeting of the Society of Biology, Brown-S6quardhad argued that the testes probably produced a "dynamogenic"substance which mnightbe extracted from the testicles of animalsand injected into aging or debilitated individuals to restore their strength. Brown-Sequard based the argumentsfor pursuingthese experiments on commonly ac- cepted assumptionsabout human sexuality. For example, it was widely held that loss of semen resulted in the loss of strength, and that the practice of masturbationled to debility. Brown-S6quardargued that retention of semen ought to lead to increasedstrength and vigor. Fur- ther, he suggested that the testes produced some substance which was nutritive to the nerves, and which might be extracted. In the light of these arguments, many physicians were willing to test his ideas, and "Brown-S6quard'sfluid" came to be employed in the treatment of a 1. C.-E. Brown-Sequard and A. d'Arsonval, "De l'injection des extraits li- quides provenant des glandes et des tissues de l'organism comme m6thode thera- peutique," Comp. Rend. Soc. Biol., 9th s6r.,3 (April 18, 1891), 248-250. For a dis- cussion of the events leading up to this communication, see my paper, "Brown- Sequard's Organotherapy and Its Appearance in America at the End of the Nine- teenth Century," Bull. Hist. Med., 50 (1976), in press. Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 9, no. 2 (Fall 1976), pp. 235-268. Copyright ? 1976 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland. This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 01:04:35 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MERRILEY BORELL variety of nervous and debilitatingdiseases. This mode of therapy be- came popularnot only in France, but also in the United States and in Russia. By the spring of 1891, a number of investigatorshad realized that similarly potent medicaments might be extracted from other tis- sues, and physiciansin Pariswere askingBrown-Sequard and d'Arsonval to supply them with these preparations.? Although the rationale for the introduction of organotherapyinto medicine was developedlargely in France,much of the evidencefor the validity of its claims came from Britain.In the early 1890's, two impor- tant discoveries were made in Britain which added credence to the notion of internalsecretions developed by Brown-Sequardand d'Arson- val. These discoveries were the cure of myxoedema by subcutaneous injection of thyroid extract, reported in 1891 by George Redmayne Murray(1865-1939), and the observationof the vasopressoreffects of adrenal extract made in 1894 by George Oliver(1841-1915) and Ed- ward Schafer (1850-1935). As a result of these discoveries,investiga- tions conceming internal secretions were graduallyremoved from the clinic to the laboratory:specific questions were asked by investigators and standardphysiological techniques were employed to answerthem. These discoveries effectively transformed the research program per- ceived by investigatorsby designatingan alternativeto the essentially therapeuticprogram developed by Brown-Sequard. It is the purpose of this paper to describe how Britishphysiologists came to recognize that internal secretionsexist in animaltissues and to examine how they learned to measurethe effects of these substances. The demonstration of a therapeutically-activethyroid extract and a physiologically-activeadrenal extract resultedin the explorationof new physiological problems, problems which, over the next decade, became the focus for the emergingfield of endocrinology. To understandthe context of these discoveries, it is necessary to review briefly the reception in England of Brown-Sdquard'sideas on internal secretions and to point out how the Britishmedical profession maintaineda skeptical attitude toward these ideas and the clinical evi- 2. 1 discuss these developments in detail in Chapters 1 and 2 of "Origins of the Hormone Concept: Internal Secretions and Physiological Research, 1889- 1905," Ph. D. diss., Yale University, 1976. 3. George R. Murray, "Note on the Treatment of Myxoedema by Hypoder- mic Injections of an Extract of the Thyroid Gland of a Sheep," Brit. Med. J., 2 (October 10, 1891), 796-797, and G. Oliver and F. A. Schafer, "On the Physiolog- ical Action of Extract of the SuprarenalCapsules,"Proceedings of the Physiolog- ical Society, March 10, 1894, J. Physiol., 16 (1894), i-iv. 236 This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 01:04:35 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Organotherapy,British Physiology, and the InternalSecretions dence advanced to support them. In retrospect, it is clear that a new kind of evidence was required to generate any widespreadinterest in Britain. BRITISHPHYSICIANS AND THE TESTICULAREXTRACT The precise impact of Brown-S6quard'sexperiments with testicular extract is difficult to characterizefrom the reports published in the leading British medical journals. Few reports were published between 1889 and 1891, and they tell us Littleof the responseof Britishphysi- cians, except by implication. Nonetheless, it is evident from later com- municationsthat some British physicians were interestedin the pheno- mena described by Brown-S6quard,and that some work on the thera- peutic effects of testicularextract was undertaken. On June 22, 1889, three weeks after Brown-Sequard'sfirst commu- nication on testicular extract, the British MedicalJournal publishedan account of the phenomenon of rejuvenation reported by Brown- S6quard. In an article entitled "The Pentacle of Rejuvenescence,"the journal described Brown-Sequard'sexperiments with testicular fluid.' Although its discussionof the experimentswas straightforward,prelimi- nary comments in the report suggest that the popular reaction to the public announcement of Brown-Sequard's"discovery" had been quite unsettling to the medical profession.The second sentence of the report lamented: "The statements he [Brown-S6quard]made - which have unfortunately attracted a good deal of attention in the public press - recall the wild imaginingsof medievalphilosophers in searchof an elixir vitae"'.SThe choise of title is itself an indication of the disbelief with which Brown-Sequard'sresults were received. "Pentacle" refers to a symbol used in magic, the five-pointedstar. In the twenty-three line report, there was no request, such as Brown-S6quardhad made, directly urgingother experimentersto test the "spermaticfluid," only inclusion in the summaryof the opinions of the Parisianphysicians Fer6 and Dumontpallierthat they would require Brown-Sequard'sstatements to be "rigidly tested and fully confirmed by other self experimentersbefore they were likely to meet with gene- ral acceptance."6 The editors of the British Medical Journal merely commented that "in this opinion" they "fully" concurred. 4. "The Pentacle of Rejuvenescence," Brit. Med. J., 1 (June 22, 1889), 1416. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 237 This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 01:04:35 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MERRILEY BORELL Thus, although enthusiasm for the testicular extract developed in other countries duringthe next few months, and Brown-Sequardrepor- ted on the therapeutic successes of the fluid to his colleaguesin Paris, no comparableinterest appears to have been generated in Britain.In fact, only two foreign reports of treatmentsusing the testicularextract were cited by the British MedicalJournal in 1889. The first summari- zed the results of Variot in