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The Father of Hormonal Therapy: 1889–1893

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Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard

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Abstract

The study of the therapeutic worth of extracts of organs and endocrine glands occupied the last 4 years of Brown-Séquard’s life. It ranks, with his discovery of a spinal hemisection syndrome, as his lasting contributions to medical science. A preconceived idea that the testicles had an important dynamic function, led him, after experimenting on himself with injections of animal extracts, to assess the effects of pancreatic, thyroidal, renal, bone marrow extracts in animals surgically deprived of these organs. In April 1891, his communication to the Société de biologie on the injection of liquid organ extracts as a therapeutic method is considered by most medical historians as marking the birth of Endocrinology and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for it boosted the discoveries of all endocrine gland secretions which, by the middle of the 20th century, saw Endocrinology well established as a science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1889) Des effets produits chez l’homme par des injections d’un liquide retiré des testicules frais de cobaye et de chien. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 41: 415–419, p. 415.

  2. 2.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1889) Troisième note sur les effets des injections sous-cutanées de liquide testiculaire. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 41: 430–431, p. 431.

  3. 3.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 1, above, p. 415.

  4. 4.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1893) On a new therapeutic method consisting in the use of organic liquids extracted from gland s and other organs. Br Med J 1: 1145–1147, 1212–1214, p. 1145.

  5. 5.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1889) Seconde note sur les effets produit chez l’homme par des injections sous-cutanées d’un liquide retiré des testicules de cobaye et de chien. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 41: 420–422, p. 420.

  6. 6.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 1, above, p. 415.

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Ibid.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., p. 417.

  11. 11.

    Ibid.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., pp. 418–419.

  13. 13.

    Hamilton D (1986) The Monkey Gland Affair. Chatto and Windus, London, p. 12.

  14. 14.

    Ibid.

  15. 15.

    Quoted by Olmsted JMD (1946) Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard. A nineteenth century neurologist and endocrinologist. The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, p. 210.

  16. 16.

    Variot G (1889) Expériences sur l’action physiologique du suc testiculaire injecté sous la peau, suivant la méthode de Brown-Séquard. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 1: 451–454.

  17. 17.

    Lanterne (1892) Brown-Séquard. Les Progrès de sa méthode. Paris, 8th Aug.

  18. 18.

    Olmsted, op. cit., note 15, above p. 210.

  19. 19.

    Boston Weekly (1889) Serious results of “elixir” tests. Boston, 23rd Aug.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    Ibid.

  22. 22.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1889) Du rôle physiologique d’un suc extrait des testicules d’animaux d’après nombre de faits observés chez l’homme. Arch Physiol norm pathol 1: 739–746, p. 739.

  23. 23.

    Berdoe E (1889) Serious moral question. Letter for private circulation among physicians, 12th Jul. Br Med J: 1416. Also GMcCC Ms 980/67.

  24. 24.

    British Medical Journal (1889) 1: 1416.

  25. 25.

    British Medical Journal (1889) 2: 29.

  26. 26.

    British Medical Journal (1889) 2: 611.

  27. 27.

    Lancet (1889) 2: 105–107.

  28. 28.

    Lancet (1965) Before our time. Lancet’s editors: Letter to Brown-Séquard. 1: 315.

  29. 29.

    Lancet (1890) Dr Brown-Séquard’s “Elixir of Life” 1: 57–58.

  30. 30.

    Perry J (1894) Brown-Séquard. L’Evenèment, Paris, 5th Apr.

  31. 31.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 22, above.

  32. 32.

    Marseille médical (1889) 30th Aug, p. 458.

  33. 33.

    The Medical Recorder (189) 14th Aug, p. 206.

  34. 34.

    Hammond WA (1889) Experiments relative to the therapeutic value of the expressed juice of the testicles when hypodermically introduced into the human system. NY Med J 50: 232–234.

  35. 35.

    Medical Directory for the year 1889. London.

  36. 36.

    Delhoume L (1939) De Claude Bernard à d’Arsonval . Baillière et Fils, Paris, p. 360.

  37. 37.

    Chauveau L (1937) D’Arsonval . Soixante-cinq ans à travers la Science. Editions J Oliven, Paris, p. 216.

  38. 38.

    Ibid.

  39. 39.

    Goncourt E and J (1893) Journal, vol 3. Robert Laffont, Paris, p. 731.

  40. 40.

    Chauveau, op. cit., note 37, above, p. 216.

  41. 41.

    Ibid.

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Goncourt, op. cit., note 39, above, p. 740.

  44. 44.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1893) Letter to Dr Poupinel de Valencé , 25th March. In: Lettres inédites du Brown-Séquard. Revue Historique et Littéraire de l’île Maurice, N°12, July 1894.

  45. 45.

    Darmon P (1995) Pasteur. Fayard, Paris, p. 389.

  46. 46.

    Ibid.

  47. 47.

    Binet L (1954) Médecins Biologistes Chirurgiens. Segep, Paris, p. 123.

  48. 48.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1893) Letter to Dr Poupinel de Valencé , 2nd March. In: Lettres inédites du Brown-Séquard. Revue Historique et Littéraire de l’île Maurice, N°13, July 1894.

  49. 49.

    Brown-Séquard CE, d’Arsonval A (1893) Effets physiologiques et thérapeutiques d’un liquide extrait de la glande sexuelle mâle. C R Acad Sci (Paris) 116: 856–861.

  50. 50.

    D’Arsonval A (1891) Letter to Brown-Séquard, 24th March. Quoted by Delhoume, op. cit., note 36, above, p. 379.

  51. 51.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1891) Letter to d’Arsonval , 28th March. Quoted by Delhoume, op. cit., note 36, above, p. 384.

  52. 52.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 5, above, p. 421.

  53. 53.

    Brown-Séquard (n.d) Letter to d’Arsonval . Quoted by Delhoume, op. cit., note 36, above, p. 393.

  54. 54.

    Arch Exp Pathol Pharmako (1890) 26: 371–378.

  55. 55.

    Brown-Séquard CE (1893) Influence heureuse de la transfusion du sang normal après extirpation des capsules surrénales chez le cobaye. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 45: 448–449.

  56. 56.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 4, above, p. 1231.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., p. 1146.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Ibid., p. 1231.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 5, above, p. 422.

  64. 64.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 4, above, p. 1145.

  65. 65.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 4, above, p. 1213.

  66. 66.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 4, above.

  67. 67.

    Semaine médicale, 13th Aug 1890.

  68. 68.

    Abelous JE (1893) La physiologie des glandes à secretion interne: corps thyroïde et capsules surrénales. Revue générale des sciences pures et appliquées 4: 275–278.

  69. 69.

    Gley E (1891) Note préliminaire sur les effets physiologiques du suc de diverses glandes et en particulier du suc extrait de la glande thyroïde. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 3: 250–251.

  70. 70.

    Murray GR (1891) Note on the treatment of myxoedema by hypodermic injections of an extract of the thyroid gland of a sheep. Brit Med J 2: 796–797.

  71. 71.

    Mackenzie HWG (1892) A case of myxoedema treated with great benefit by feeding with fresh thyroid gland . Brit Med J 2: 940–941.

  72. 72.

    C R Acad Sci (Paris) 114: 1399–1405, 1892.

  73. 73.

    Chauveau, op. cit., note 37, above, p. 214.

  74. 74.

    C R Acad Sci (Paris) op. cit., note 72, above.

  75. 75.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 4, above.

  76. 76.

    British Medical Journal (1893) 1: 1279.

  77. 77.

    Perry, op. cit., note 30, above.

  78. 78.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 1, above, p. 417.

  79. 79.

    Kruif P de (1945) The Male Hormone . Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, p. 45.

  80. 80.

    Hardy J (1894) L’Actualité. La Séquardine. Le Petit Clermentois, Clermond Ferrand, 6th Apr.

  81. 81.

    The Star (1894) Dr Brown-Séquard, London, 3rd Apr.

  82. 82.

    The Daily News (1894) Obituary of Brown-Séquard. London, 3rd April.

  83. 83.

    Brown-Séquard CE (n.d.) Letter to d’Arsonval . Quoted by Delhoume, op. cit., note 36, above, p. 481.

  84. 84.

    Shyrock RH (1947) American Medical Research. Past and Present. The Commonwealth Press, New York, p. 180.

  85. 85.

    Greenley TH (1894) The Evolution and descent of Man. American Practitioner and News 17: 291–292.

  86. 86.

    Fulton JF, Wilson G (1966) Selected Readings in the History of Physiology. Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, pp. 410–411.

  87. 87.

    Circular from the Medical Department of C. Richter & Co., (1910) Manufacturing Chemists, Albion House, 59–61 New Oxford Street, London.

  88. 88.

    Kruif, op. cit., note 79, above, p. 58.

  89. 89.

    Emerson GM (ed) (1976) Aging. Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross Inc, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, p. 67.

  90. 90.

    Ibid.

  91. 91.

    Klein M (1973) Sur les Interférences des sciences fondamentales et de la Clinique sur l’essor de l’endocrinologie sexuelle. Clio Medica 8: 31–52, p. 32.

  92. 92.

    Voronoff S (1923) Greffes testiculaires. O. Doin, Paris, 1923.

  93. 93.

    Hamilton, op. cit., note 13, above.

  94. 94.

    Herman JR (1982) Rejuvenation : Brown-Séquard to Brinkely. NY State J Med 2: 1731–1739.

  95. 95.

    Brown-Séquard, op. cit., note 22, p. 741, note 1.

  96. 96.

    Rollestone HD (1936) The Endocrine organs in health and disease with a historical review. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London p. 21.

  97. 97.

    Borell M (1976) Origins of the Hormone concept. Internal secretions and physiology research 1889–1905. Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2nd December 1976, p. 2.

  98. 98.

    Brown-Séquard CE, d’Arsonval A (1891) Addition à une note sur l’injection des extraits liquides de divers organs, comme méthode thérapeutique. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 43: 265–268, p. 267.

  99. 99.

    Maisel AQ (1965) The Hormone Quest. Random House, New York, p. 14.

  100. 100.

    Ibid.

  101. 101.

    Quoted by Young FG. The Evolution of Ideas. Animal hormones . In: Needman J (ed) (1971) The Chemistry of Life: lectures on the History of Biochemistry. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 125.

  102. 102.

    Hoskins HG (1933) The Tides of Life. The Endocrine glands in bodily adjustment. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trebner & Co., London p. 16.

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    Louis-Cyril Celestin

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Celestin, LC. (2014). The Father of Hormonal Therapy: 1889–1893. In: Charles-Edouard Brown-Séquard. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03020-3_18

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