GRAFTING OF GLANDS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19175, 5 December 1927, Page 5

GRAFTING OF GLANDS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHEEP. DR. VORONOFF'S SUCCESS. (ST CABLE— PT.ZSS ASSOCIATIOV— COPYRIGHT.! (AUSTRALIAN AND Si'.B. CABLE ASSOCIATION.I (Received December 4th, 5.3 p.m.) LONDON, December 3. Dr. Voronoff's gland-grafting experiments on ahcep in Algeria appear to be meeting with much success. Reports published in Paris from M. Pierre Milk, one of the leading French Colonial authorities, describe the experiments in which twenty young rams were grafted and twenty of the same age non-grafted were set aside for comparison. When thj weights wore tested after the prescribed period, the non-grafted averaged 31 kilos 823 grammes, and the grafteds -11 kilos 700 grammes. Tho grafteds gave a more abundant and silkier wool, the weight of the average fleeco being 750 grammes over the non-grafteds. M. Mille says that identical results were obtained in French West Africa, and it is believed that experiments will shortly be tried in France. [Dr. Voronoff, the monkey gland expert, who was engaged in research work by the French Government, announced in March that experiments made in 1924 of grafting an extra gland in a healthy sheep were a revelation, but tho expenses were hoavy. It was discovered that the offspring of the grafted sheep were eight pounds heavier at five months than lambs from sheep not treated. He proposed to graft glands upon tho offspring of treated sheeep. not with a view to breeding sheep as big as oxen, but to obtain the maximum of wool. Dr. Voronoff added: "Sheep which usually die when fourteen years old, when treated live to twenty, and instead of enduring old age for four years, they die suddenly in a week. The same thing would probably occur with human beings." Dr. Voronoff was about to proceed to Algeria to experiment on a Government ranch of 3000 sheep. In September last Dr. Voronoff told the International Congress of Zoology at Budapest the results of his experiments in Algeria. With two assistants he made twelve transplantations of glands daily, and found that the effect was good on the quality of wool grown by animals treated and successive generations of lambs. He claimed that if sheepowners throughout the world immediately put his method into practice the world's supply of mutton would increase by onefifth in slightlv over a year, and the world's supply" of wool would increase at least by 25 per cent., compared with to-day's production.]