Chapter XVIII 







CHEMICO-FUNCTIONAL INTEGRATION 



Functional as Contrasted with Growth Integration 



A SSUMING Child's theory of metabolic gradients to be 

 * *-well grounded, we are furnished thereby with one im- 

 portant insight into the chemical processes involved in the 

 unity of the individual organism. But that process is con- 

 cerned primarily with the growth, with the production of the 

 individual. The question now is, are there chemical proc- 

 esses the object of which is to maintain the functional unity 

 of the complete or nearly complete individual? Are there 

 chemical operations the office of which is to preserve a 

 proper interrelation among the parts of the organism as 

 these perform their special offices? 



That such is to some extent the significance of most if 

 not all internal secretions as usuallv understood is indicated 



> 



by the fact that the functional disturbances attending re- 

 moval of the thyroids or other glands from various animals ; 

 and by the further fact that where internal secretions play 

 a part in development, their action is rather that of stimula- 

 tor, or at least modifier, than of true producer. 



The conception of internal secretions as being at least as 

 much regulators of physiological function as of growth is 

 illustrated by cases of hypopituitarism of the post- 

 adolescent type, like those described by Gushing, for ex- 

 ample. In the series of cases of disease due to "pituitary 

 deficiency" the first symptoms appeared when the subjects 

 were from thirty to forty years old. 



113 



