Glands and the Man 227 



the small intestine, and that when this is swept away 

 in the blood stream, and comes in due course to the 

 pancreas or sweetbread, it stimulates in that organ 

 an increased flow of digestive juice. 



The body is made one by the nervous system and 

 also by the circulation of the blood — that common 

 medium from which all the cells take, and to which 

 they all give. But the new idea, that has changed the 

 whole aspect of physiology, is that the regulative 

 function is effected by these hormones which put on 

 speed or put on a brake, as circumstances require. 

 The organs and tissues of internal secretion have 

 complex and subtle influences, still imperfectly in- 

 vestigated, and they work into one another's hands in 

 a wonderful way. 



The thyroid gland acts like an accelerator of the 

 transformations of energy that go on in our bodies ; 

 the pituitary body has much to do with the regulation 

 of growth ; the supra-renal bodies, under the influence 

 of emotion, secrete an increased amount of adrenalin 

 into the blood, and the results are manifold — raising 

 the blood-pressure, increasing the sugar-content and 

 coagulability of the blood, quickening the heart-beats 

 and the breathing movements, toning up the nervous 

 system, and so forth. It is the gland of emergencies. 



The cretin child, whose bodily development is ar- 

 rested, is also more or less of an imbecile. What is 

 wrong is thyroid-deficiency, and when that is medi- 

 cinally compensated for by injections of thyroid 

 secretion, say from sheep, or by a thyroid diet, there 

 is an immediate improvement in the state of the mind 



. ; -JO 



