THE BASIC PHYSIOLOGIC REGULATORS 9 
nervous systems; also, those people might be free from 
an infection of any organ or portion of the body. This 
class of patients usually consists of the chronics who 
have a long train of symptoms that point to imperfect 
action of one or more of the vital organs—imperfect 
circulation, difficult respiration, subnormal tempera- 
ture, high or low blood-pressure, malassimilation, de- 
fective elimination, nervous prostration, sexual incom- 
petency and such like. 
The question arises: Why this imperfect actioning 
or malfunctioning of the vital organs in the absence of 
any disease per se, and what is the best known treat- 
ment? The answer to this very important query brings 
us to the consideration of the subject indicated by the 
title of this paper: “The Basic Physiologic Regula- 
tors,” or the ductless glands and their secretions, usu- 
ally known as the internal secretions or hormones. 
I am free to admit that I had been a student of medi- 
cine for twenty years, and an active practitioner fif- 
teen, before I had anything like a clear conception of 
the physiologic role of the endocrine glands, or that 
dysfunction on the part of one or more of them would 
unbalance the physiologic poise of the body and thereby 
cause a state of general ill health. 
It has been repeatedly stated that the human body is 
a machine. For the sake of comparison, we will admit 
the truth of this rather materialistic expression and 
compare the physiologic functions of the endocrine 
glands to the regulator that controls the actions of a 
watch. The minute mechanism of a watch may be 
perfect, not a break nor flaw in any of its wheels, 
pinions, levers or springs—in normal “health.” Yet, 
unless that delicate mechanism known as the regulator 
is accurately adjusted the watch will not keep perfect 
time—it will run too slow or too fast. So with the 
human body. Every vital organ may be in perfect 
health per se, without pathologic lesions, yet, unless the 
