IDEAS CONCERNING THE E/NDOCRINES 265 
was derived; and that it also aids the gland in becom- 
ing reéducated and renewed—if anatomicaly and phys- 
iologically deficient.” 
Hustin’s experiment is of much interest. He acti- 
vated a pancreas in a paraffin bath, with secretin; but 
only in the presence of blood, indicating that the hor- 
mones themselves are activated in some manner by 
substances present in the plasma. 
The system exerts a selective and an appropriative 
ability to deliver to its hormone producers the hor- 
mones we give to activate and rejuvenate them. We 
know that oxygen in the lungs enriches the blood; and 
yet we know that the blood stream is the depot of dis- 
tribution and that respiration occurs in each cell as 
it gives to and takes from the blood. As analogous to 
this well-known physiological process, I firmly believe 
that we can say that these hormones are vital and ele- 
mentary; that they are necessary to life because they 
sustain a balance to the various systems, viz., circula- 
tory, muscular, nervous, digestive, mental and others 
which are interdependent. 
Loeb and Rahtjen have ably demonstrated that in 
dyshormonism and hypohormonism we find a syn- 
drome of evidence of hypotension or hyposphyxia, mus- 
cular and general systemic asthenia, hypodynamia, and 
that the calcium ions are overbalanced by too many 
natron ions, thus bringing about a train of nervous 
symptoms, which may border on and actually develop 
into insanity. In such cases there is a strong tendency 
to mental disorders, especially to melancholia, and the 
main infective cause with which we are so familiar, is 
influenza. The case may be the average simple in- 
fluenza, or that complicated asthenic group of symp- 
toms consisting of what some one has termed ‘“‘flu- 
monia,” with pharyngitis, neuritis, otitis, nephritis, 
and, in fact, the disease is called by the French “La 
