THE PITUITARY BODY 



velopment of the human pituitary which, he emphasizes, fol- 

 lows a typical mammalian pattern such as that of the cat. 

 According to Tilney, the pars glandularis (which he terms the 

 pars distalis) develops as a medullary core almost entirely 

 surrounded by a cortical envelope; he believed that the func- 

 tional anatomy of these developmental divisions should be 

 carefully investigated. 



There have appeared recently several contributions to the 

 comparative anatomy of the pituitary body, particularly in 

 fishes and amphibia. Among the fishes studied were several 

 species of skates (Rata maculala, R. clavata, and R. brachyura 

 [Howes, 1936]), various selachians (Ranzi, 1937), and a num- 

 ber of species of bony fishes (particularly Silurus glanis 

 [Lange, 1936]), including the eel, Anguilla vulgaris (Hagen, 

 1936). Some of the studies embraced physiological correla- 

 tions. For example, Lange described the yearly cyclic changes 

 in the pituitary of S . glanis. Ranzi found that bv the his- 

 tological appearance of the pars glandularis and pars inter- 

 media it was possible to decide whether the pituitary had 

 been removed from an immature, a normal adult, or a preg- 

 nant selachian. Hagen pointed out that the pars glandularis 

 of the eel is largely made up of oxyphils. The volume and 

 vascularity of the pituitary markedly increases during meta- 

 morphosis. Sato (1935) studied several anuran amphibia. 

 Among studies in birds that of Schildmacher (1937) is best 

 mentioned here. He investigated the histology of the pitui- 

 tary in the blackbird {Turdus merula) in males and females at 

 times of annual flights (spring and autumn). 



THE BLOOD VESSELS OF THE PITUITARY BODY 



Wislocki and King (1936) have made an important con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the vascular connections of the 

 pituitary body and adjacent tuber cinereum. Their results 

 indicate that the description of Popa and Fielding, especially 

 of the hypophysio-portal system, requires extensive modifica- 

 tion. The pars glandularis is furnished with blood by two 



