Cures for Men’s Virility Have Always Been a Money Maker
Before Viagra, charlatans peddled many cures for those with poor male reproductive health. Few made as much out of problematic erection fixes as did “Dr.” John R. Brinkley (1885 – 1942). He became known as the “goat glands doctor”, but might be better thought of as the “goat testicles transplant doctor. The “Dr.” is in quotes because Brinkley simply bought a medical degree from a diploma mill. He began to practice medicine after moving to Milford, Kansas, where he opened a clinic specializing in men’s sexual performance. For $25, Brinkley injected his patients with colored water, and promised that it would turn them into tigers in bed. Like many charlatans, Brinkley demonstrated that a conman need not be brilliant, so long as his marks are dumb, are willing to suspend disbelief due, or are too embarrassed to admit that they had been conned.
Brinkley’s male performance cures, at best, had a placebo effect with some whose problems were psychological rather than physical. However, between his tireless self-promotion, over the top personality, and his marks’ eagerness to believe, he soon developed a reputation as a miracle worker in male libido fixes. One day in 1918, a patient walked into Brinkley’s clinic, and complained that he couldn’t get it up. The doctor cracked a joke about how the man would have no problem if he had goats’ testicles – goats having a particular reputation back then for virility. At some point after doctor and patient stopped laughing, they figured “why not?“, and decided to go ahead and put goat balls in the man’s testes. Brinkley even offered the man $150 if he went along with the experiment.
