DR. VORONOFF'S VITAL INVERSION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] : • SIR,—The letter of Mr. (or is it Miss ?) L. Johnson in
your current issue serves as a timely reminder_ that even in Europe we have got a Tennessee. As the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, it behoves us to be on the watch lest even in these .enlightened days the obscurantists may not revive the faggot and.the stake.
Apparently your correspondent: believes that " Monkeys are the incarnations of lost human souls." Allowing for the poetic language, this may also be regarded as the scientific View. All available data go to show that the orang, the gorilla and the chimpanzee are distant cousins of ours, whose forefathers, somewhere in a past epoch, parted from ours and took a turning which led them away from development into humanity.
If there be any question of the ethics of utilizing anatomical portions of these poor relations of ours to remedy human ills, surely it lies in whether we are entitled to subject them to mutilation for our benefit, while they are powerless to refuse. In this respect are they in a different position from the sheep, ox, pig, goat, horse, &c., whose thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, pancreatic, sexual and intestinal glands and blood serum are used in medicine every day ?
As for the taboos and inhibitions which are implied through- out your correspondent's letter, all that need be said is that they have no existence for the scientist, who investigates with impartiality the tear glands and the sex glands, or any other glands.
Humanity has long since chosen between Darwin and Huxley on the one hand, and Wilberforce and the Duke of Argyll on the other. In due course it will give the Duchess of Hamilton and Dr. Voronoff their proper evaluation.—I am, sir, Ste., DOCTOR OF MEDICINE. [This correspondence is now closed.—En. Spectator.]
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