# Monkey Gland Transplants were Nifty. In the 1920s. Allegedly **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 24, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444 "2025-04-24T14:45:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/1 "2025-04-24T14:45:25Z")
Dammit, the Human ability to rationalize is weird. And can involve transplanting monkey glands into millionaires ballsacks. For fun & profit. [The Surgeon was named Vornoff, & a fad was started. (LINK)](https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/07/02/he-made-a-fortune-in-the-1920s-transplanting-monkey-testicle-tissue-into-the-ballsacks-of-millionaires/?utm_source=news.messynessy.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=barstool-stories-from-paris&_bhlid=3f79863343e8c04d4a9d0318abb0f2247ad05092) And Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a Sherlock Holmes story, based on the idea. [The Adventure Of The Creeping Man (LINK)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Creeping_Man) And a Bio page of [this very real Mad Doctor (LINK).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Voronoff) ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/2 "2025-04-24T14:50:21Z")
_Behind the Bastards_ has an episode or two devoted to this; people are strange. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/3 "2025-04-24T14:51:04Z")
Enhance, please. I am unfamiliar with that media. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/4 "2025-04-24T14:53:40Z")
It’s a podcast by Robert Evans. I wonder how often “monkey” was a euphemism for “tramp found down by the railroad tracks”? ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/5 "2025-04-24T14:54:26Z")
It’s a podcast devoted to terrible people throughout history. [Behind the Bastards](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/) ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/6 "2025-04-24T15:12:36Z")
There was a guy in the US doing it with goat testicles. Someone here recommended a book about him to me maybe 5 years back. Can’t remember his name off the top of my head though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/7 "2025-04-24T15:13:11Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I wonder how often “monkey” was a euphemism for “tramp found down by the railroad tracks”? I feel that this is unlikely. Taking body parts from monkeys is legal. Taking body parts from humans is illegal. So why take the extra risk of using human body parts when your customers were paying you to use monkey body parts? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/8 "2025-04-24T15:14:15Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > There was a guy in the US doing it with goat testicles. Someone here recommended a book about him to me maybe 5 years back. Can’t remember his name off the top of my head though. [John Brinkley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley) ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/9 "2025-04-24T15:19:25Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > There was a guy in the US doing it with goat testicles. In fact, my brain may have cross-fired, and this is actually what that _Behind the Bastards_ episode was about… ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/10 "2025-04-24T15:32:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So why take the extra risk of using human body parts when your customers were paying you to use monkey body parts? Millionaires get what millionaires want. Why settle for monkey glands when human (even tramp) glands are obviously better? The fact that Serge ran out of executed criminals is a small obstacle for a man of wealth. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/11 "2025-04-24T15:37:54Z")
Gland-injection rejuvenation therapy appeared in popular media of the era. Buster Keaton goes into a clinic for goat glands in _Cops,_ after making sure no one sees him. In 1923’s [Black Oxen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Oxen), it’s used by an aging European woman to vamp a nice American boy (kind of an interesting 100-year difference from Demi Moore’s treatment of similar material in _The Substance_ There was nothing fancy about the procedure: a syringe drew fluid out of the animal’s testicle and jabbed it into the patient’s. The immune system would respond with swelling, and before the pain set in, he’d think he’d achieved nutsack nirvana. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/12 "2025-04-25T13:20:11Z")
It was notorious enough of a procedure in its own time to produce a drink (from Harry’s New York Bar in Paris) called the “Monkey Gland”. [Monkey gland (cocktail) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_gland_(cocktail)) They’re… not my favorite. Gin, absinthe and orange juice don’t work as well together as the recipes claim. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/13 "2025-04-25T13:33:25Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Gin, absinthe and orange juice don’t work as well together as the recipes claim. So, a very meta reference to monkey gland therapy, then… ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/14 "2025-04-25T13:55:22Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > There was a guy in the US doing it with goat testicles. Someone here recommended a book about him to me maybe 5 years back. Can’t remember his name off the top of my head though I remember recommending the book about J.R. Brinkley: [_Charlatan_ by Pope Brock 2009](https://www.amazon.com/Charlatan-Americas-Dangerous-Huckster-Flimflam/dp/0307339890) ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/15 "2025-04-25T14:14:05Z")
Thank you…it was an excellent book. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/16 "2025-04-25T14:58:51Z")
Re Monkey Glands The wonderful series Dark Matters- Twisted But True had a brief segment on a surgeon transplanting bits of monkey testicles into men as a virility treatment. This was part of a larger segment on a Soviet scientist trying to create a humanzee. NOTE- With literally one or two exceptions, the events and experiments dramatized and discussed on the show are verified historical fact. Experts in various fields make comments and explain things. As promised, the things shown are “twsited but true”. I cannot recommend the show strongly enough. Re Goat Glands Many years ago, I heard of a comic book called Crucial Fiction. It was summarized as “A man attempts the ultimate blasphemy- to bring about the Second Coming himself!”. I eventually tracked down a copy. It was fantastic! I have never been able to find a copy of the second issue which was about an evangelist who claimed to have mastered “goat gland science”. I’m going out on a limb and assuming this is the same man mentioned above. ETA Many episodes of Dark Matters can be found on YouTube. I do not think they are posted by people who have the right to do so. This is why I have not linked to the Ape Man Army segment. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/17 "2025-04-25T15:08:49Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Millionaires get what millionaires want. Why settle for monkey glands when human (even tramp) glands are obviously better? The fact that Serge ran out of executed criminals is a small obstacle for a man of wealth. I thought Voronoff and Brinkley were telling their customers that they were transplanting animal organs. Were there cases where they claimed they were using human organs? As you point out, millionaires want to get what they paid for. If they paid for a monkey gland, they might get annoyed if a human gland was substituted. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/18 "2025-04-25T15:10:54Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Gin, absinthe and orange juice don’t work as well together as the recipes claim. I’d still rather drink one than have one surgically installed. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/19 "2025-04-25T15:16:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If they paid for a monkey gland, they might get annoyed if a human gland was substituted. If they paid extra for a “monkey gland” and only got a monkey gland, any self-respecting early 20th Century millionaire would have had the doctor’s legs broke. (I think you are taking my posts a little too seriously) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444/20 "2025-04-25T15:40:40Z")
Conversely, John D. Rockefeller started out drinking the purest possible cow milk but switched in old age to human milk drunk from a thermos while he golfed [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monkey-gland-transplants-were-nifty-in-the-1920s-allegedly/1017444.md?page=2)