314 HYPOPHYSIS IN CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM 



on this mobilization by the autonymous nerves and pancreas, 

 and thus the level of sugar in the blood is kept at a constant 

 level, ' ' is, it is true, very plausible. But actually such inter- 

 dependence is far from proven (and this should be clearly 

 understood). 



RELATION OF THE HYPOPHYSIS TO CARBOHYDRATE 



METABOLISM 



Perhaps nothing can illustrate more clearly how ex- 

 tremely difficult it is to come to any definite conclusions in 

 this field of our study than a statement of the relations of 

 the hypophysis to carbohydrate metabolism. 



As previously stated (Vol. I of this series, p. 484, Chem- 

 istry of the Tissues), Borchhardt succeeded in inducing a 

 glycosuria in rabbits, but not in dogs, by injections of ex- 

 tract of the hypophysis. Later, after a careful review of 

 the whole literature bearing upon the subject, he came to 

 the conclusion that glycosuria is a more constantly associ- 

 ated feature in cases of acromegaly (in which it may be 

 assumed that the hypophysis is the part primarily involved) 

 than in any other affection. 43 It is very interesting in this 

 connection that B. Aschner, 44 from recent investigations of 

 his own carried out in B. Paltauf 's Institute, holds that there 

 exists a sugar centre in the vicinity of the hypophysis. After 

 Kreidl and Karplus, colleagues of the writer, had succeeded 

 in the Vienna Physiological Institute in showing a sympa- 

 thetic nervous centre in immediate proximity to the tuber 

 cinereum, Aschner found that it was possible to produce a 

 glycosuria with absolute certainty by injuring the tuber 

 cinereum. "If we grant, " suggests Aschner, "that over- 

 activity of the hypophysis itself, just as overactivity of the 

 thyroid in Basedow's disease, can give rise at times to a 

 glycosuria, it seems much more probable from the foregoing 

 experiment (production of glycosuria from injury to the 



43 L. Borchhardt (Jaffe's Lab., Konigsberg), Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 66, 3-4, 

 1908. 



44 B. Aschner, Pfliiger's Arch., 146, 114, 1912. 



