CHAPTER I 



INTERNAL PROTECTIVE SECRETIONS 



CONTENTS. 1. Theory of glandular organs and secretory processes. Historical 

 development (Malpighi, Ruysch, Haller, J. Miiller). 2. Glands with no excretory 

 ducts ; their importance as organs of internal secretion^-^, Structure and mode 

 of secretion of thyroid and parathyroid glands. 4. Gachexia thyreopriva after 

 total thyroidectomy in man : analogy with spontaneous myxoedema and cretin- 

 ism. 5. " Tetania, thyreopriva " in man. 6. Varying effects of thyroidectomy in 

 various animals. 7. Criticism of hypotheses put forward to explain effects of 

 thyroidectomy. 8. Experimental basis for theory of auto-intoxication resulting 

 from functional deficiency of thyroids. 9. Thyroid grafts : injection of thyroid 

 juice and thyroid feeding in therapeutic treatment of cachexia thyreopriva. 

 10. Theory of specific functional independence of thyroid and parathyroids. 

 &L. Specific protective function of pituitary gland (glandular portion of hypo- 

 physis). 12. Structure of suprarenal bodies (adrenals) and paraganglia. 

 13. Clinical observations and physiological experiments on protective function of 

 the suprarenal bodies. 14. Double function of medullary (or paragangliar) and 

 cortical part of suprarcnals. 15. Experimental injection of suprarenal extract. 

 16. Active principles of suprarenal and paragangliar system (adrenaline, para- 

 gangline). Physiological action. Bibliography. 



IN the last chapter (Vol. I. xiv.) we discussed the formation of 

 lymph through the walls of the blood capillaries, and the physiology 

 of the lyniphoid tissues and organs (which continually pour out 

 new cells, as well as the chemical products of their anabolism and 

 katabolism, into the lymph and blood stream), and referred in 

 general terms to the physiological concept of the so-called secretory 

 processes. If secretion means every alteration by the tissue- cells 

 of the medium in which they live either by the removal from 

 it of all the materials required for their nutrition, or by the 

 return to it of all the products of their metabolism we should 

 obviously have to admit that every living cell, as such, exhibits 

 secretory activity (Brown-Sequard). But the concept of secretion 

 must be taken in a more restricted sense. The term secretory 

 is not applied to the cells which form the nervous and mus- 

 cular tissues, nor, speaking generally, to the active and passive 

 mechanisms of sensation and movement, while it is used of the 

 histological elements that participate actively in the production 

 and purification of the blood and lymph, particularly the epithelia 



VOL. II 1 B 



