216 THE PITUITARY, THYROID AND ADRENALS AS A SYSTEM. 



them, while the veins return by the same path as the arteries. 

 The partition between the two lobes contains, according to 

 Miiller, 53 a net-work of lymphatics lined with ciliated epithe- 

 lium. 



The predominating feature of these anatomical relations 

 is, of course, the connection with the sympathetic system, 

 which suggests that the anterior lobe may prove to be the 

 suprarenal center to which we have so frequently referred. 

 Indeed, we have had abundant evidence of the limited control 

 or influence the bulb and cord have over the adrenals, while 

 the experiments of Vassale and Sacchi have shown that re- 

 moval of the pituitary gives rise to symptoms of total supra- 

 renal insufficiency. Were the anterior lobe the seat of this 

 all-important function, however, it would necessarily lose its 

 identity as a secreting organ, since its role would be to gen- 

 erate, under the influence of a stimulus toxic blood, for in- 

 stance an impulse or impulses that the sympathetic nerves 

 would transmit to the adrenals. The large nuclei of the epi- 

 thelial cells, the wealth of endothelial and epithelial elements, 

 and the remarkable vascular supply of this lobe, all seem to 

 lend weight to this hypothesis. 



As we will see in the chapter on "Immunity," all such 

 protoplasmic elements are endowed with immunizing attributes. 

 Either as stationary phagocytes or alexocytes they are able to 

 react aggressively against various pathogenic elements. That 

 this denotes a latent power in each cell to exert chemotactic 

 influence is generally recognized. But Buchner has shown 

 that leucocytes are not only chemotactic to bacteria, their 

 powerful toxins and bacterial proteids, but also to various 

 substances, down to so inert a material as wheat-flour. This 

 affords evidence that the cellular elements of which the vas- 

 cular and alveolar structures are composed are endowed with 

 latent energy, which, in the presence of any one of a large 

 number of substances, may become active. That in so impor- 

 tant an organ as the pituitary now seems to be this reserve of 

 energy should be unusual is apparent; we have testimony that 

 such is the case in the anterior lobe in the large size of the 



M Miiller: Jenaische Zeitschrift, Bd. vi, 1891. 



