FOREWORD 



titles never secreted as such by the living gland is now recog- 

 nized by most investigators. But, despite the relative crudity 

 of many present biologic methods, the investigator is daily 

 encouraged by the growing body of new and reliable infor- 

 mation, rechecked by different workers and by diverse meth- 

 ods. The least encouraging situation today is the clinical ap- 

 plication of the experimental findings in the pituitary field. 

 These findings have improved our diagnosis of pituitary dis- 

 orders in man, but have added little to their control. At least 

 we have not scored a success in the pituitary therapy com- 

 parable to that in thyroid, pancreas, and parathyroid disor- 

 ders. This may be due, in part at least, to the very complex- 

 ity of the pituitary-hormone relationships. Since none of the 

 hypophysis hormones seems to be significantly active via the 

 oral route, greater success in the therapeutic field is depend- 

 ent on the quantity production of more pure preparations 

 for parenteral use. 



In addition to the ever present challenge of human pitui- 

 tary therapy, the phylogeny of the pituitary-gland functions 

 is another field of interest as yet inadequately explored. The 

 processes, or factors of growth, metabolism, gonad activity, 

 etc., are common to all the vertebrates. But the hypophysis 

 appears chemically to influence such diverse organs as the 

 mammary gland, the crop glands (present in some birds), the 

 uterus, the chromophores, etc. — organs not present in all 

 vertebrate groups. While we have many instances of the 

 chronologic appearance of hormones so related to processes or 

 structures on which they seem to have specific action as to 

 suggest, at least in some cases, an actual causal relationship, 

 the appearance of "estrogenic" substances in plants, the ap- 

 pearance of CO2 as a cell product many millions of years in 

 advance of the development of the respiratory center, the as 

 yet questionable hormone status of epinephrine, seem to sug- 

 gest the reverse process as a factor in evolution — that is. 



