NA TURE 



401 



THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1917. 



ACROMEGALY 'AND THE EXTINCTION OF 



STECIES. 

 1 nC'orie dc la Contre-evolution, ou Degenerescence 

 par VHeredite pathologique. Par le Dr. Rene 

 Larg^er. Pp. xiv + 405. (Paris : Felix Alcan, 

 1917.) Price 7 francs. 

 X 1885, when Dr. Pierre Marie, who has just 



I 



succeeded the late Prof. Dejerine in the chair of 

 clinical neurology in the University of Paris, was 

 the youthful director of the laboratory attached 

 to La Salpetri^re, he was impressed by the simi- 

 larity of the condition and symptoms presented 

 by two women who had entered the great nerve 

 hospital as patients. In both women a disastrous 

 change had been wrought in their physical appear- 

 ance and well-being; in the course of a year or 

 two their faces had become big and ugly, so that 

 even their relatives and friends failed to recognise 

 them ; their hands and feet grew in size and 

 changed in shape, although the normal period for 

 growth was long past. Dr. Marie perceived that 

 the morbid state presented by these two women 

 was identical, and that it was a diseased condition 

 which, up to that time, had passed unrecognised. 

 He published an account of his two patients,* 

 giving the name "acromegaly" to the condition, 

 because of the enlargement of the extreme parts of 

 the body — the hands, feet, and face. 



The original description was no sooner published 

 than cases began to be reported by clinicians from 

 every part of the world. Hundreds of cases are 

 now on record. \'ery soon it was recognised that 

 nearly all giants, besides suffering from a general- 

 ised overgrowth, were also the subjects of this 

 peculiar, or acromegalic, kind of growth. As a 

 result of thirty-two years of observation and ex- 

 periment it may be regarded as now certain that 

 gigantism, acromegaly, and a number of other con- 

 ditions are directly related to a disordered state 

 of the pituitary gland — -an organ so minute that it 

 forms onlv T-^{yoo part of an adult human body. 



In his theory of "contre-evolution" Dr. Rene 

 Larger has developed the idea that gigantism 

 and acromegaly may attack not an individual here 

 and there as amongst mankind, but may break out 

 in a whole species or genus, so that all the in- 

 dividuals become affected, at first with a moderate 

 degree of acromegaly, but finally with an un- 

 restrained pitch of gigantism, in which condition 

 the whole race or family finally perishes. He is of 

 opinion that his theorv explains many facts which 

 now seem obscure to those who are studying living 

 and extinct forms of animal life. He selects his 

 examples from the great dinosaurians, the living- 

 and extinct great birds, and whales, elephants, and 

 anthropoids, as mammalian representatives. 



Although we are willing to admit -that Dr. 

 Larger is the first to apply in a svstematic manner 

 certain medical concepts to problems concerning 

 the evolution and extinction of animal forms, and 

 that he has rendered a service to biologists in doing 



1 Kevue de MeJeeine(\%'*f), vol. vi., p. 297. 



NO. 2490, VOL. 99] 



so, we do not think that either his confreres in 

 France or his colleagues abroad will agree that he 

 has done justice to the present state of our know- 

 ledge regarding the growth of the human body. 

 Dr. Larger regards the enlarged or disordered 

 state of the pituitary gland, which is invariably 

 found in the subjects of gigantism and of acro- 

 megaly, as merely one of many manifestations of 

 the disease, whereas the prevailing and best-founded 

 opinion is that a direct and causal connection exists 

 between the disorder of the pituitary gland and the 

 disturbance of growth. The pituitary is, how- 

 ever, only one element in a series of growth- 

 controlling glands. In the mechanism of growth 

 and of adaptation of the body to its surroundings 

 the genital glands, the adrenal gland, the 

 thyroid, the pancreatic, and the pituitary glands, 

 and many minor bodies, take a part; between 

 them they determine the shape given to the body, 

 and the form given apparently depends on the 

 dominance of one or more of the members of this 

 growth-controlling endocrine mechanism. 



When in his Croonian lectures of 1905 Prof. 

 Starling gave the name of "hormones" to the 

 "chemical messengers" sent out by one organ of 

 the body to control the action or growth of any 

 other organ or part of the body, he and Prof. 

 Bavliss had a very clear appreciation of the im- 

 portant part hormones were to play in all biological 

 investigation and speculation. They realised that 

 they were dealing with the most primitive 

 mechanism for co-ordinating the functions and 

 systems of a composite animal body — one which 

 must have ante-dated the appearance of a ner^e- 

 system, and could serve to link the tissues of the 

 bodv to the germ plasm of the unborn seed. We can- 

 not'say that zoologists have shown any undue haste 

 in applving and testing- the theory of hormones. 

 In 1908 Mr. J. T. Cunningham (Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 p. 434) applied the theory of hormones to explain 

 inheritance ; in his presidential address to the 

 Section of Zoology of the British Associa- 

 tion at Sheffield in 1910 Prof. C. C. Bourne 

 clearly recognised the r6le of hormones in the 

 evolution of new forms; in recent writings bv 

 Prof. A. Dendy and by Prof. E. W. MacBride 

 it can be seen that they, too, have grasped the 

 importance of hormones to zoologists. It is this 

 wider concept of hormones that we should prefer 

 to see applied to the problems which Dr. Larger 

 has dealt with in his theory of "contre-evolution," 

 but, even if we cannot get the whole loaf, we must 

 be thankful to him for a piece of real bread. 



A. Keith. 



ELECTROTECHNICAL BOOKS. 



(i) The Range of Electric Searchlight Projectors. 

 By Jean Rey. Translated by J. H. Johnson. 

 Pp. xiv + i.S2. (London: Constable and Co., 

 Ltd., 1917.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 



(2) The Calculation and Measurement of 

 Inductance and Capacity. By W. H. Nottage. 

 Pp. 137. (London: The Wireless Press, Ltd.) 

 Price 2s. 6d. 



(3) Electric and Magnetic Measurements. By 



Y 



