A wise man once said, “I never thought I would be like those old people.” And yet, age overtook him as it does us all. Oh, we fight back, spending billions of dollars annually to help us return, as best we can, to those days when we had more vigor, more energy, fewer worries. We never change.
A century ago, a man who grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina was leading the way to help his contemporaries find the mythical fountain of youth. He had his own statement on how to overcome the aging process. It was simple. “A man is as old as his glands.” That was the philosophy of Dr. John R. Brinkley.
John Romulus (later Richard) Brinkley grew up in a small community that is still unincorporated to this very day. Called Beta, it is situated east of Sylva on Highway 74. Don’t blink as you pass through or you’ll miss it. Brinkley was the son of a doctor who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, John R. grew up as the medical profession was changing. While John Sr. studied under a mountain doctor, then just put out his shingle (sign) that he too practiced medicine, the son found many more hurdles to the job. By the early 20th century, doctors were required to take professionalized training.
John R. Brinkley never got accreditation from a recognized medical school. He earned a degree from the Kansas City Eclectic Medical University. It sounds substantial but it was a diploma mill that handed out certificates to whomever could afford them. Undeterred, the paper allowed Brinkley the ability to add the initials, M.D. to his name and he went off to practice medicine, somewhat like his father.
Photo: Dr. John R. Brinkley and his accomplishment.
The medical career of Brinkley led him to the tiny Kansas town of Milford, where citizens needed a physician. They advertised. John R. answered the call. An elderly man sought a cure to an age-old problem. It turned out to be life-changing operation for both doctor and patient. He wanted Dr. Brinkley to transplant goat glands into his scrotum to return the aging man to his vibrant, sexually active youth. Why a goat, you ask? Because throughout history, the goat has been recognized for a high libido, even to its dying day. The Greek god Pan serves as a good example.
Dr. Brinkley performed the operation and within a year the man and his wife had a child. They named him for the goat, Billy. Soon, other sufferers of diminished sexual appetite began flocking to Milford for the same treatment. The western Carolina boy had found himself in a gold mine. He charged $750 for the operation, which roughly equals $14,000 in 2025. He could perform the operation in 15 minutes.
Quickly, Brinkley began making so much money that he financed the paving of Milford’s Main Street to help new patients find his hospital. He believed, as did those upon which he operated, that the Brinkley method had cracked the code on aging. As the 1920s dawned in America, it looked like a new age had come. No longer did old fogeys whither away. They were only “as old as their glands.”
There’s more to the story, next week. A lot more.
