

THE PITUITARY AND THE ADRENALS. 191 



we can now see why two stages occur after removal of the 

 pituitary. Since we have a stage of suprarenal overactivity, 

 there must have been, as stated, an accumulation of poisons 

 in the organism as a result of the extirpation of the organ. 

 The rigidity of gait, spasms, etc., point to the nature of the 

 poisons: i.e., waste-products of metabolism. The pituitary 

 must, therefore, also be able to stimulate the adrenals, since 

 we now know that the oxidation processes of which they are 

 the underlying factors destroy these toxics. But as there is 

 also a stage of insufficiency in the operated animal, we are 

 normally led to the conclusion that the metabolic products 

 have been more than a match for the adrenals and that the 

 latter have finally succumbed, just as they would have under 

 the effects of any active poison. 



Precisely, therefore, as we have in the thyroid and thymus 

 a product capable of stimulating the adrenals, so do we have 

 in the pituitary gland a product capable of stimulating the 

 adrenals. The effects witnessed in the experiments of Oliver 

 and Schafer, Szymonowicz, Howell, de Cyon, Ott, Hinsdale, 

 Schiifer and Swale Vincent, and Osborne and Swale Vincent, 

 if this be true, are all ascribable to the latter organs. We can 

 readily understand now why Howell had to allow the effects 

 of one dose of extract to pass off before a repetition of these 

 effects could be obtained from a succeeding one. The first 

 dose had brought the adrenals up to a high degree of activity, 

 perhaps that specific to pituitary extract, and the next dose 

 could do no better. Such was not the case when the stage of 

 insufficiency was reached, however; here specificity no longer 

 existed, and, the larger the dose, the deeper became the lethal 

 tendency: i.e., the suprarenal insufficiency. This is shown by 

 the results of Schafer and Swale Vincent in this connection. 



Again, the experiments of the last-mentioned authors 

 point to the differential effects of various agencies. After the 

 administration of atropine the rise became "enormous": fur- 

 ther evidence that they had incited suprarenal overactivity 

 to a degree far exceeding that of which the pituitary extract 

 itself was capable. As to the pressor and depressor effects 

 noted by Osborne and Swale Vincent, it seems probable that 

 they were merely using solutions of different strengths. Yet 



