THE BOGUS ELIXIR. Dr. Shrady Demolishes its Claims

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 413, 23 October 1889, Page 6

THE BOGUS ELIXIR. Dr. Shrady Demolishes its Claims

The ' Medical Record ' of New York prints an editorial by Dr. George F. Shrady, which contains this language : •It is a little mor c than a month since the news of BrownSequai'd's alleged method of rejuvenating the aged reached this country. The subject is one that naturally appeals to public interest, since long life ana vigorous old age have always been among the chief objects of human desire, and consequently it has received a much greater share of newspaperattention thanis usually bestowed on medical topics. 'This is most unfortunate, for public discussion of such an absurdity tends only •to bring scientific medicine into ridicule. .The method iB on its face preposterous. Its vaunted effects are impossible and ridiculous. It is opposed to all known physiogical and biological laws, and had it not been bolstered up by the reputation of Brown-Sequard it would scarcely have been heard of outside of the Paris society where it was proposed, and no one would have looked upon it in anyother light than as the foolish conceit of an old man in whose mind tho dreams of returning youth had assumed the counterfeit of reality. ' The experiments reported by Dr. Loom is are sufficient, we think, to satisfy the demands of legitimate prudence. In fact, it has alreudy received more attention than it has deserved. The results of these experiments seem to show that the injected material may, in certain cases, act as a mechanical stimulant, bat that is all. They fail, utterly, to support the extravagant claims of physical and mental rejuvenescence which have been pub forward in behalf of this method. 1 Along with this editorial is an article entitled 'An Experimental Study of the Brown-Sequard Theory,' by the eminent physician, Dr. Henvy P. Loomis, in which the doctor reviews all the cases on which he has tried the fluid in the Bellevue Hospital, to each ot which is added comment to the eflect that there has been no improvement, or that the improvement has nob been permanent. In one case the treatment was injurious.