210 COHTEX 



in the other. Hypophysectomy causes a very marked 

 atrophy of the adrenal cortex which may reduce the cor- 

 tex to one-fifth of its normal size, the medulla remaining 

 unaffected. Implants of the pituitary into hypophysecto- 

 mized rats prevents this adrenal atrophy. Evans 309 first 

 demonstrated the hypertrophy of the cortex which follows the 

 administration of alkaline extracts of the anterior pituitary. 

 Houssay et alii 310 showed that such extracts caused hyper- 

 trophy of the adrenal cortex in the absence of the hypophysis, 

 thyroid, or sex glands and after section of the splanchnic nerves. 



Clinically, likewise, one observes changes in the pituitary 

 in diseases involving the adrenal cortex and changes in the 

 adrenal in acromegaly, hypophyseal cachexia, and other patho- 

 logical involvements of the hypophysis. In acromegaly, the 

 cortex is hypertrophied whereas the hypophyseal atrophy of 

 Simmonds' disease is accompanied by atrophy of the adrenals. 

 In Addison's disease Kraus 366 found a marked diminution in 

 the number of normal basophilic cells of the pituitary in some 

 cases. In extreme cases normal basophilic cells are entirely 

 absent from the gland. The eosinophiles are also diminished 

 in number and may be abnormal. 



Experimentally, changes in the hypophysis may be induced 

 in animals maintained for long periods in a state of chronic 

 adrenal insufficiency. Thus in dogs maintained on minimal 

 doses of adrenal cortical hormone for periods of 100 days and 

 then allowed to die of adrenal insufficiency, Grollman and 

 Firor 248 found changes in the pituitary which resembled those 

 reported in patients dying of Addison's disease. There was 

 an increase in vascularity of the hypophysis, dilatation of the 

 capillaries, and a marked diminution in the number of baso- 

 philic cells which, in one dog, had completely disappeared. In 

 the rat, the increased vascularity was less striking than in the 

 dog. Nor was there as marked a diminution or disappearance 

 of the basophilic cells. However, the staining of these baso- 

 philic cells was very abnormal. As in Addison's disease, the 



