Wool Glands

There were days when Sir John Mandeville and Baron von Muenchhausen told tales and people swallowed them. People were no more credulous then than-now, but less was known of the geography of the world and of what strange things might be discovered in unknown parts. It was unwise to doubt too much for fear of being damned later by the facts.

The average man today is in much the same position in regard to science. It is on this account that many tall stories about the miracles of gland-transplanting have gained popular credence.

The press recently broadcasted from Liege, Belgium, the announcement that Surgeon Serge Voronoff, famed French gland-grafter, had stated that it was possible to increase the wool crop of sheep by gland-transplanting. He added that he hoped, by repeating the process on several generations of sheep, to create a special breed unusually wool-productive. He said that he was experimenting on a flock of 3,000 sheep in Algeria.

It has long been known that the growth of hair, plumage, etc., is largely a secondary sex characteristic--i.e., that it is a sort of by-product of the activity of the sex glands. But Dr. Voronoff's claims--if, indeed, he has made them--go a great deal further than this simple scientific knowledge suggests. At the present stage of matters, these claims are a press report-- no more; and it is well to keep in mind that the press's reports on scientific matters are generally about as reliable and discriminating as a plumber's reports on pharmacy or a cook's reports on literature.