3 24 Blair Bell 



and directly into the third ventricle cannot be sustained, and that this 

 secretion, if required, can be taken up, like other internal secretions, by 

 the blood stream. It is to be remembered that the secretory cells of the 

 posterior lobe — the cells of the pars intermedia — are derived from the 

 same source as those of the pars anterior ; consequently, while clamping 

 and separating the stalk interferes with the blood-supply to all these 

 cells, the removal of the pars posterior does not remove those situated 

 at the base of the brain, nor does such an operation interfere with 

 the pars anterior. Hence it is that it becomes necessary to look upon 

 the functions of the pituitary as a whole, and to consider this structure as 

 one organ and not two. The fortuitous juxtaposition of the epithelial 

 cells and the pars nervosa has probably no relation to the vital — essential 

 and beneficial — functions with which the pituitary is concerned. Even 

 if secretion from the pars nervosa does pass into the cerebro-spinal 

 fluid, there is not the slightest evidence to show that this is essential, 

 beneficial, or even the normal method by which infundibulin is taken 

 uj) by the animal economy. 



Special attention has been directed by Gushing to the peculiar 

 somnolent condition in which the animal may exist for .some time after 

 operations which decrease the pituitary secretion, especially' that of the 

 pars anterior. This state, which has already been described, is quite 

 characteristic. It may exist in different degrees from a deeply comatose 

 condition to merely mental lethai"gy. If the animal becomes really 

 comatose, as is the case after complete and almost complete pituitary 

 extirpation, death always, in my experience, supervenes. But some 

 animals — for example, dog 8 in my series — become somnolent for many 

 days, and must be roused and lifted out of their beds in order to get them 

 to take food. This they readily do as soon as they are sufficiently aroused. 

 Animals that recover usually pass from this condition into one of mental 

 lethargy, which either disappears in time or persists — according to the 

 permanence or otherwise of the diminished secretion. 



Gushing and Goetsch (1915 (10)) have likened this condition to that 

 of hibernation, a state which Gemelli (190G (11)) first suggested might be 

 due to functional hypopituitarism. And it is interesting to recall the fact 

 that in hibernation one sees exactl}' the same histological picture — shrunken, 

 inactive cells — that one observes in the experimental cases in which lethargy 

 persists, and in dystrophia adiposo-genitalis in the human subject. 



There is little to be said at present concerning the relation of pituitary 

 lesions to polyuria and glycosuria. Gushing and his colleagues are now 

 engaged in investigating these questions (9), and their work seems likely to 

 revolutionize many existing opinions. Meanwhile, no good purpose would 

 be served by a rediscussion of the present views. 



With regard to the experiments in which artificial tumours were placed 

 in the neighbourhood of the pituitary, my experiments are too few to 

 enable me to do more than conclude that neighbourhood tumours may 



