CLINICAL ASPECTS OF ENDOCRINOLOGY 23 



The operation broke down this "conditioned" system 

 and signs of vegetative disharmony came forth with 

 vasomotor inactivity in the foreground. An adjust- 

 ment of her vessel-tone caused the immediate disap- 

 pearance of the edema, "cankers," and swollen tongue. 

 It is not possible that in the past such a disturbance 

 would have been looked upon as a "reflex neurosis" 

 McGillicuddy, 14 Hilton 15 and that little attention was 

 paid to the developmental personality and vagotonic 

 disposition? 



THE CARDIOVASCULAR MECHANISM 



The second system to be considered is the cardio- 

 vascular system, which is composed of the heart, a 

 special type of smooth muscle tissue, and the enormous 

 extent of blood vessels from the larger arteries to the 

 small capillary tubes and lymph channels. The blood- 

 vessels contain in their inner coat the smooth striated 

 muscle tissue with its vasomotor nerve control. In the 

 majority of quantitative glandular disorders there is a 

 disturbance in the cardiovascular mechanism, either an 

 arrhythmia, a hyper- or hypotension, brady- or tachy- 

 cardia. These symptoms occur of themselves, as was 

 noted in the physical examinations of the recruits for 

 the army, and many were accepted as soldiers, who 

 later developed actual neuroses, under the strain and 

 stress of army life. Oftentimes this stress upon the 

 "conditioned" cardiovascular system brought forth 

 symptoms highly suggestive of a thyroid or an adrenal 

 membrane, the vasomotor disorders in their peripheral 

 blood-vessels appeared to be most important. In the 

 cardiovascular system, per se, there are such symptoms 

 as swooning, fainting, epileptoid seizures, convulsions, 

 pseudo-myocarditis, pseudo-angina pectoris. Laig- 

 nel-Lavastine has said that endocrine syndromes may 

 depend not only upon a lesion of a corresponding gland 

 or its regulating nervous mechanism, but indeed upon 



