PREFACE AND SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. XI 



secretion, and, therefore, of oxidizing substance in the plasma. 

 Eadical changes in prevailing doctrines as to the manner in 

 which general infections, or other forms of poisoning, produced 

 their effects on the organism thus seemed to impose them- 

 selves. In fact, the mass of confirmatory evidence found on all 

 sides (including the effects of removal of the adrenals, the 

 thyroid, or the anterior pituitary body, and of the use of ad- 

 renal and thyroid extracts) proved to be incontrovertible. We 

 were thus led to conclude that what are now considered as 

 symptoms of infection or poisoning are all manifestations, more 

 or less severe, of overactivity or insufficiency of the adrenal system. 

 Indeed, the physiological action of remedies was also traced to the 

 anterior pituitary body, the governing center of this system. 



The bearing of this discovery upon the prevailing inter- 

 pretation of the pathogenesis and treatment of disease is well 

 shown by the manner in which it at once elucidated our knowl- 

 edge of even the greater scourges of humanity. The symp- 

 tomatology of Asiatic cholera, for example, was found to be a 

 counterpart of the symptom-complex of advanced adrenal in- 

 sufficiency, and due to the effects of cholera-toxins upon the 

 anterior pituitary body. The only treatment of any value 

 whatever, as is well known, is early and active stimulation: i.e., 

 the use of agents which, as does the thyroid's active principle, 

 reawaken the functional activity of this organ. Cholera in- 

 fantum, arsenic poisoning, various toxalbumins, and other in- 

 toxications produce identical symptoms; all these proved like- 

 wise to be syndromes due primarily to adrenal insufficiency. 

 Pulmonary tuberculosis also asserted its identity as a disease 

 due to lowered functional activity of the adrenal system: 

 either inherited or acquired. While "lowered vitality" had 

 become the result of such a state; here it meant, besides, 

 impaired cardiac activity and a corresponding malnutrition of 

 the pulmonary tissues, the underlying factor of vulnerability to 

 the effects of the tubercle bacillus. Our main resource, a 

 high altitude, enhances, we well know, the heart's activity 

 and simultaneously the nutrition of the lungs themselves, as 

 well as that of all other organs, including those of the adrenal 

 system. A multitude of agents have been found helpful in this 

 dread disease, including Koch's tuberculin. All proved to be 



