XXI 
THE FUNCTION OF THE OVARY AND ITS RE- 
LATION TO OTHER ENDOCRINE GLANDS 
By JAMES H. HUTTON, M.D., Chicago, Ill. 
In the July (1920) number of the Yale Review, Eu- 
gene Lyman Fisk gives as one of the conditions oper- 
ating to shorten life, hormone deficiency. He says 
“hormone deficiency is probably the greatest imme- 
diate factor in limiting the life cycle. It implies a 
lack of some substance or group of substances whose 
function is to stabilize the tissues in a state of health.” 
He enlarges upon the possibilities of a perfect hormone 
balance and, while some of his conclusions are avow- 
edly whimsical, he emphasizes the importance of these 
“substances.” While it is not certain that life could 
be greatly extended by regulating the “hormone bal- 
ance,” it is now conceded that perfect harmony among 
endocrine glands does make for normal] development. 
A marked discrepancy exists between the amount 
of definite work accomplished on the majority of the 
endocrine glands and that done on the ovary. The in- 
ternal secretion of the ovary was among the earliest 
of the hormones whose existence was recognized.' It 
was also one of the earliest to be used therapeutically. 
In spite of this fact very little is definitely known con- 
cerning the nature of the ovarian hormone, or of the 
portion of the ovary from which it comes. Thera- 
peutically, some claim the corpus luteum as the only 
useful active principle; others prefer the whole gland; 
7A? 
