500 THE POSTERIOR PITUITARY AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



illustration, to the "capsule of the lobe thickened in places, 

 from which extend threads that end in knobs," etc. That the 

 varicose threads and the capsule are structurally continuous, 

 the latter thus dipping, through a multitude of protoplasmic 

 projections, into the deeper elements of the lobe is evident. 



We have, we think, firmly established the relationship 

 between the anterior pituitary and the adrenals, through nerves 

 at present considered as appurtenances of the sympathetic sys- 

 tem. That the anterior lobe contains but one kind of nerve 

 connected with this function besides its vasoconstrictors is 

 shown by the following statement of Berkley's: "In the gland- 

 ular portion of the body, nerves, other than those belonging 

 to the sympathetic system, are not found. They are very 

 fine varicose fibers, with numerous ramifications and branchlets 

 coming off from the main stems at a right or slightly obtuse 

 angle." These fibers must, therefore, represent, considering 

 their relation with the suprarenal system, not terminals of the 

 connecting nerves and distributors of energy, but collectors of 

 energy, which the organ's cells have converted into mechanical 

 energy: i.e., impulses for the adrenals. If Fig. I in Plate III, 

 which represents a section of the glandular portion of the 

 anterior lobe, is consulted, it will be seen that these nerves 

 present the two main characteristics of the capsular threads 

 of the posterior lobe: i.e., they are also varicose and their tips 

 are likewise knobbed. Since, therefore, the nerves so disposed 

 in the anterior pituitary are collectors of energy, the varicose 

 and knobbed threads of the capsules of the posterior pituitary 

 must also ~be collectors of energy. This is further sustained by 

 the analogy between the two organs to which reference has 

 already been made. 



That a direct nervous connection between the posterior 

 pituitary and the infundibular tissues, etc., exists by way of 

 the capsule of the former is apparent. This makes it possible 

 for impulses generated in the depths of the lobe to reach the 

 ventricular structures, irrespective of the sharply defined con- 

 nective-tissue separation between the lobe proper and the in- 

 fundibulum. Indeed, such a, separation seems a necessity, in- 

 asmuch as an impulse, transmitted through the intermediary 

 of the capsule must, owing to the skull-cap shape of the latter, 



