Verjüngung durch experimentelle Neubelebung der alternden Pubertätsdrüse
book · 1920
LINK
SUMMARY
Steinach's foundational monograph on vasoligation-as-rejuvenation. Presents his animal-experiment basis for the procedure: rat studies showing that bilateral obstruction of the vas deferens produced atrophy of seminiferous tubules and apparent hypertrophy of interstitial tissue, which Steinach interpreted as shift toward increased secretion from what he called the 'puberty gland' (Leydig cells). Contains no controlled human outcome data and no randomized comparison. Available in digitized form on the Internet Archive (Call number QP90 .S7 1920). This is the primary source for Steinach's own framing of the mechanism and his claim that the procedure reversed measurable signs of senescence in aging male rats.
NOTES
Steinach’s 1920 monograph is the principal primary source for the vasoligation-rejuvenation hypothesis. The work rests on rat experiments rather than human clinical data. Steinach documented histological changes post-vasoligation in aged rats and inferred that cessation of spermatogenesis shifted the testis toward interstitial secretion, which he believed would restore youthful physiological function. The inferential leap from rat histology to human endocrine rejuvenation is the central methodological flaw identified by subsequent reviewers. The monograph established the theoretical framework for a procedure that would be performed on thousands of men over the following two decades, including Sigmund Freud and W. B. Yeats.