There are history’s broad outlines, known to many, and there are history’s minor details, known mostly just to history buffs. And there are fascinating but often overlooked details, that might alter one’s perception of history, altogether. Following are forty things about amazing facts that might enhance or alter your perception of history.
40. The Doctor Behind the Great Goat Testicles Transplant Craze (Part 1)
There might exist greater understatements than “men care about their penises“, but if so, they are probably few. Men always worried about their family jewels. Throughout history, you’d never find a shortage of those eager to cash in on such concerns. Not least when it comes to the ability – or in this case the inability – to get it up. Before Viagra came along and ruined the party. Many charlatans, quack doctors, witch doctors, and self-declared witches had a field day peddling cures for sexual malaise. Even today, despite medical breakthroughs in treating erectile dysfunction, a plausible promise to improve men’s penis is one of the easiest moneymakers out there.
Few made as much out of problematic penis 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 diploma mill. He then began practicing medicine after moving to Milford, Kansas, where he opened a clinic specializing in men’s sexual performance. For $25, Brinkley injected his patients with nothing more than colored water, plus a promise 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. And willing to spend their money.