SECRETION OF THE DUCTLESS GLANDS. 887 



ing complete removal of the ovaries, it is a frequent, though not 

 invariable, result for the individual to gain noticeably in weight. 

 An effect of the ovaries on general nutrition is indicated also by 

 the interesting fact that in cases of osteomalacia, a disease charac- 

 terized by softening of the bones, removal of the ovaries may 

 exert a favorable influence upon the course of the disease. These 

 indications have found some experimental verification in a research 

 by Loewy and Richter* made upon dogs. These observers 

 report that complete removal of the ovaries, although at first 

 apparently without effect, resulted in the course of two to three 

 months in a marked diminution in the consumption of oxygen by 

 the animal, measured per kilogram of body weight. If now the 

 animal in this condition was given ovarian extracts (oophorin tab- 

 lets), the amount of oxygen consumed was not only brought to 

 its former amount, but considerably increased. A similar result 

 was obtained when the extracts were used upon castrated males. 

 The authors believe that their experiments show that the ovaries 

 form a specific substance which is capable of increasing the oxida- 

 tions of the body. While the effects described above may be 

 referred probably to the internal secretion of the interstitial cells 

 of the ovaries, other facts indicate that other elements in the 

 gland may also furnish a specific secretion. Thus, the implanta- 

 tion of the fertilized ovum in the uterine mucous membrane 

 and the development of the placenta have been supposed to be 

 effected through the agency of some chemical stimulus arising in 

 the cells of the corpus luteum (see section on Reproduction). 



Pancreas. The importance of the external secretion, the pan- 

 creatic juice, of the pancreas has long been recognized, but it was 

 not until 1889 that von Mering and Minkowskif proved that it fur- 

 nishes also an equally important internal secretion. These observers 

 succeeded in extirpating the entire pancreas without causing the 

 immediate death of the animal, and found that in all cases this 

 operation was followed by the appearance of sugar in the urine in 

 considerable quantities. Further observations of their own and of 

 other experimenters have corroborated this result and added a num- 

 ber of interesting facts to our knowledge of this side of the activity 

 of the pancreas. It has been shown that when the pancreas is com- 

 pletely removed a condition of glycosuria inevitably follows, even 

 if carbohydrate food is excluded from the diet. Moreover, as in 

 the similar pathological condition of glycosuria or diabetes mel- 

 litus in man, there is an increase in the quantity of urine (polyuria) 

 and of urea, and an abnormal thirst and hunger. Acetone also is 



* Loewy and Richter, "Archiv f . Physiologic," 1889, suppl. volume, p. 174. 

 t Minkowski, "Archiv f. exper. Pathologic u. Pharmakologie," 31, 85, 

 1893. 



