PREFACE AND SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. xlH 



of tetanus sustains us, especially when compared with the re- 

 sults of Baccelli's carbolic-acid treatment. As interpreted from 

 our standpoint, this agent powerfully stimulates the adrenal 

 system, and simultaneously causes prompt oxidation of the 

 waste-products. Baecelli, we know, saves almost all of his 

 cases. The same may be said of hydrophobia; here again the 

 method of treatment employed in the various Pasteur Insti- 

 tutes insures precisely what Baccelli does with the aid of car- 

 bolic acid: in suitable doses, the extract of desiccated cord in- 

 jected raises the anterior pituitary body's functions to their 

 normal standard and sustains them until all danger is past. 



The element of specificity would seem to be lost with the 

 anterior pituitary body as the source of all symptomatic phe- 

 nomena. But such was not found to be the case by any means. 

 The adrenal system showed itself as the source of a large num- 

 ber of symptoms, but not of all. Each pathogenic agent, a 

 toxin, a vegetable poison, a venom, for example, influences the 

 adrenal center in its own way. Some drugs quinine, for in- 

 stance are able to raise the adrenal system's functional ac- 

 tivity to a very high state before they cause it to lapse into 

 insufficiency; others, such as hydrocyanic acid, almost at once 

 overwhelm it. Between these two extremes are many degrees 

 of functional activity, each of which gives rise to symptoms 

 essentially ascribable not only to the adrenal system itself, but 

 also to other organs which are gradually awakened to inordi- 

 nate activity as the oxidation processes become more active. 

 Among these other organs, the posterior pituitary body (or in- 

 fundibular lobe of the hypophysis), the spleen, and the pan- 

 creas, require special mention in this connection, since we found 

 them to be endowed with functions which had not so far been 

 discerned. 



The posterior pituitary body, far from being the insig- 

 nificant vestigial organ it is generally thought to be, was found 

 by us, thanks mainly to the investigations of Berkley, An- 

 driezen, Howell, and de Cyon, to stand second in importance 

 only to its mate, the anterior pituitary body. Indeed, it proved 

 to be the chief functional center of the nervous system, its numer- 

 ous groups of neurons forming the starting-point, or highly 

 specialized center, of a single class of nerves. The various 



