72 



LIFE: ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 



level of enzyme systems. Houssay and his colleagues in the Argen- 

 tine have presented cogent evidence that renin, a kidney hormone, 

 is a type of proteolytic enzyme which hydrolyzes one of the plasma 

 proteins to form a pressor substance. In this substance, the hor- 

 mone regulates metabolic processes by actually assuming an 

 enzymatic role." 



INTERRELATIONS OF THE ENDOCRINE GLANDS AND SECRETIONS 



(GENERAL METABOLISM AND REPRODUCTION) 



ACTIVE NATURALLY OCCURRING HORMONES 



EXCRETION PRODUCTS 



I INACTIVATED HORMONES! 



PROTEIN FAT CARBOHYDRATE 



METABOLISM METABOLISM METABOLISM 



(GROWTH) 



thyroxin 

 (general metabol 



[PARATHYROK 



i 



PARATHORMONE 

 (CA, METABOLISM) 



POTASSIUM ESTRONE SULPHATE 



SODIUM ESTRIOl GLUCURONIDE 



(ESTRONE ESTRADIOL. SSTRiOl) 



PANCREATIC 

 ISLETS 



SODIUM PRIGNaNIDIOL 

 GIUCURONiOI 



INSULIN 

 IIEDUCES BLOOD 

 SUGAR LtVEl 



P»(GNAN[CtX 



LIVER 

 KIDNEYS 



CORTin 



(membrane pliwc a3iiitt. 



sugar. salt. water and 



protein metabolism, 



mOSPHOSTLATION^ 



ADRENALIN 

 (GIYCCHHNOLYSIS) 



ANDROSTERONE 



(DEMTDIOANDROSTIRONE I 



1 



iKIDNEYSl 



Figure 5. The position of the pituitary in relation to the hormonal configura- 

 tion. (Courtesy Dennis T. Mayer, Missouri Agr. Exp. Sta. From "Bioenergetics and 

 Growth" by Brody, Reinhold Publishing Corp., N. Y.) 



The profound and diverse influences of the pituitary hormones 

 indicated in Figure 5 led Sir Walter Langdon-Brown 15 to call this 

 gland "the leader of the endocrine orchestra." But in a recent 

 address, 16 he is reported as saying that it later transpired that the 

 hypothalamus holds the still more important rank of "conductor 

 of the endocrine orchestra." The mechanism of hormone action 

 is discussed at length by Oliver Kamm and D. K. Kitchen. 17 



Vitamin research continues to reveal new trace substances 

 important to the welfare of living things, and it may be that some 

 of these are a bit more complicated than at first thought. C. D. 

 Robeson and J. G. Baxter 18 report a naturally occurring isomer 

 of vitamin A (termed by them Neovitamin A) isolated from fish- 

 liver oil where it constitutes about one-third of the total "vita- 

 min A." In rats both isomers have the same biological potency, 

 for rats can transform Neovitamin A into vitamin A. Catalytic 

 interconversion of the anthraquinone carboxylate esters of the 

 two vitamins was accomplished in vitro by a trace of iodine in 

 benzene solution. Since iodine catalysts (among many others) are 



