Secrets of Eternal Youth
Chandak Sengoopta looks at how the discovery of hormones, the body’s chemical messengers, revolutionized ideas of human nature and human potential in the twentieth century.
On June 1st, 1889, the distinguished seventy-two-year-old French-American-Mauritian physiologist Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard made a sensational announcement at a scientific meeting in Paris. For the last few years, he told his august audience, he had been feeling increasingly frail and decrepit but instead of accepting it as natural for his age, he had tried to ‘rejuvenate’ himself by injections of testicular extracts from dogs and guinea-pigs. His experiments had been resoundingly successful – he now felt many years younger and could work with the full vigour of youth, he claimed. Although Brown-Séquard attracted more than his fair share of derision (and his death within a few years of his supposed rejuvenation certainly did not help his cause) the idea of treating human ailments with organ extracts was to prove enormously fruitful.
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.