THE EFFECTS OF HYPOPHYSECTOMY 



gaseous metabolism takes place at a slower rate. Atrophic 

 changes or other anatomical indications of diminished func- 

 tion are clearly discernible in the gonads and in the thyroid 

 and adrenal glands. 



The testes and the male secondary sexual organs either 

 regress (after the removal of the pituitary of the sexually 

 mature dog) or remain infantile (after the hypophysectomy 

 of puppies). The changes in the ovaries and female secondary 

 sexual organs are similar in nature. Aschner hypophysec- 

 tomized three pregnant dogs. Abortion took place in two (5- 

 and 7-weeks' pregnancies) within less than a week. In a 

 third, hypophysectomized late in pregnancy, parturition 

 occurred 12 days after the operation; the fetuses were born 

 alive, but lived only 2 days. Aschner's protocols, although 

 mentioning lactation, do not indicate that the latter was 

 affected by the removal of the pituitary. 



The changes in the thyroid, and the associated alterations 

 in the metabolism, in the concentration of iodine in the 

 blood, etc., are discussed in chapter vii. 



A large part of the evidence in favor of an important inter- 

 relationship among the pars glandularis, the islet-tissue of 

 the pancreas, and the carbohydrate metabolism, has been 

 gathered in dogs. Sachs and MacDonald (1925), Pickat 

 (1927), and Koster and Geesink (1929) found that the con- 

 centration .of sugar in the blood was lower in hypophysec- 

 tomized than in normal dogs. Similar reports were made by 

 others (Kobayashi, 1931; Fujimoto, 1932; Lucke, Heyde- 

 mann, and Hechler, 1933; and Ichijo, 1934); not all the pars 

 glandularis, however, had been removed from some of the 

 dogs. The most marked changes in the blood-sugar concen- 

 tration were reported by Biasotti andHoussay (1931-32) and 

 D'Amour and Keller (1933). They found that the concentra- 

 tion of glucose in the blood was frequently very low (34-70 

 mg. per cent); in some cases, the symptoms of animals dying 

 appeared to be the result of a hypoglycemia. Cowley (1931) 



f6il 



