GLANDS AND THEIR FUNCTION 



A Review 



Glands in Health and Disease, by 

 Benjamin Harrow, Professor of 

 Physiological Chemistry at Columbia 

 University, Pp. 218. Price $2.50. E. 

 P. Button & Co., New York. 1923. 



THIS little book of 218 pages 

 contains a large amount of in- 

 formation in compact and read- 

 able form. It is intended as a popular 

 exposition of the important field of 

 the glands of internal secretion in 

 their relation to bodily function and 

 growth. The author has made a sin- 

 cere effort to bring the subject within 

 the grasp of the general reader and 

 has for the most part been successful, 

 although the subject is one through 

 which it is most difficult to steer a 

 straight course, when it comes to the 

 problem of popularization. He is, 

 above all, to be commended for his 

 sanity and for his stern refusal to be 

 enticed into sensationalism however 

 well it might strike the popular 

 fancy. This scientific attitude is the 

 keynote to the book. There is also a 

 very useful bibliography that will 

 prove of value to many. 



He gives a very lucid disci:ssion of 

 the nature of the endocrine glands in 

 general, explaining the manner in 

 which they function and dealing with 

 such timely questions as their rela- 

 tion to vitamines. Very properly 

 most attention is given to the thyroid, 

 pituitary, pancreas, the germ glands, 

 and the adrenals. His treatment of 

 the thyroid gland is typical of the 

 scope of the work. He describes its 

 location, considers thyroid deficiency 

 diseases, deals with the effects of 

 oversecretion, and then proceeds to a 

 discussion of the general principles of 

 metabolism and the way in which the 

 thyroid gland is involved. The more 

 important lines of experimental work 

 are discussed and an account of the 



biochemical aspects of the gland con- 

 cludes the chapter. Throughout he 

 makes specific reference to the work 

 of various authors — a necessary treat- 

 ment in a subject of conflicting views 

 such as this. The chapter on the 

 pituitary gland is handled in much 

 the same style, and the same may be 

 said of the book as a whole. 



It is not surprising that in a subject 

 so new and so full of conflicting opin- 

 ions the author should lay himself 

 open to criticism here and there. If 

 only for the sake of conscientiously 

 playing the part of reviewer we may 

 offer a few criticisms. For instance, 

 he says. "The pituitary body like the 

 thyroid consists of two parts, two 

 lobes." Not only in this but in later 

 statements he shows ignorance of the 

 more recent work in which the inter- 

 mediate lobe and the pars tuberalis 

 portions have been added to our 

 knowledge of this composite gland or 

 rather collection of glands. In any 

 case the comparison with the homo- 

 geneous thyroid is rather unfortunate ; 

 but this is merely a fault of expres- 

 sion, because he discusses most fully 

 and entertainingly the differences in 

 function lietwen the anterior and pos- 

 terior lobes. 



We can look with tolerance on such 

 misuse of words as that of calling the 

 production of ova by the ovary a 

 process of secretion. In the chapter 

 on the relation of the ductless glands 

 to one another one might take issue 

 with the statement that "removal of 

 the thyroid gland causes enlargement 

 of the pituitary and vice versa." The 

 removal of the thyroid gland does 

 cause hypertrophy of the anterior lobe 

 of the pituitary gland, but the removal 

 of the pituitary gland causes a reduc- 

 tion in size or even atrophy of the thy- 

 roid gland. We must take exception 



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