RELATION TO OTHER ENDOCRINES 229 



uted to the adrenal cortical hormone were in reality due to 

 impurities in the extracts utilized and this is true of the results 

 of those who claimed to have elicited changes in the reproduc- 

 tive system by the use of cortical extracts. These extracts 

 potent as regards their ability to maintain normal growth and 

 activity in adrenalectomized animals exert no demonstrable 

 effect on the gonads when injected into normal animals. 575 

 Even after unilateral ovariectomy performed to reduce the 

 potential ovarian activity, Howard and Grollman 321 were un- 

 able to induce any observable change in the remaining ovary 

 or in reproductive activity by the injection of concentrated 

 adrenal cortical extracts. 



The above described considerations demonstrate the absence 

 of any intimate relation between the adrenal cortex proper and 

 the gonads. In Chapter XXIII, however, we shall consider 

 an interesting group of clinical cases in which sexual and de- 

 velopmental abnormalities occur coincident with or as a result 

 of an abnormal growth of the androgenic zone of the adrenal. 

 It was because of these abnormalities that earlier workers sus- 

 pected and sought so assiduously an adreno-gonadal relationship, 

 which gave rise to the numerous researches cited above. Their 

 failure to appreciate the true significance of the androgenic 

 zone prevented their teaching the true significance of the 

 adreno-gonadal relationship. It is a specialized tissue of the 

 adrenal only (which we have denoted as the androgenic tissue 

 and described in Chapter IV) which is intimately related to 

 the reproductive system. The cortex proper, although essen- 

 tial for the well-being of the sex glands, neither controls them, 

 nor does it by hyperactivity produce any demonstrable changes 

 in the reproductive system. 



PANCREAS 



As we have seen in Chapter XII, dysfunction of the adrenal 

 cortex is accompanied by an impoverishment of the carbohy- 

 drate supplies of the body. Since insulin, the product of the 



