ENDOCRINOLOGY IN PEDIATRICS 183 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY 



Although in the fifteenth century Paracelsus de- 

 scribed his observations of cases of cretinism and 

 goitre, yet the entire subject remained dormant until 

 Johannes Muller and Ruysch, in 1844, showed that the 

 blood received secretions from certain ductless glands. 

 In 1849 Berthold, of Gottingen, experimented on ani- 

 mals to ascertain the true nature of the ductless glands. 

 Leydig, in 1850, described his work with the gonads; 

 the intertubular connective tissue cells of the testes still 

 bear his name the "interstitial cells of Leydig." The 

 term "internal secretion" was first used by Claude Ber- 

 nard in 1855, when he described the glycogenic function 

 of the liver as its "secretion interne" The real begin- 

 ning of ductless gland research dates back to 1855, 

 when Thomas Addison described the syndrome caused 

 by the changes in the adrenal glands. Starling, of Uni- 

 versity College, London, gave us the term "hormone" 

 initiators or arousers of function in 1902 in connec- 

 tion with his epoch-making work with secretin, the 

 duodenal internal secretion. Later, Sir Edward Schae- 

 fer, of Edinburgh, distinguishes the hormones, which 

 promote activities of another ductless gland, from the 

 chalones, which have an inhibitory influence. 



Since Brown-Sequard's first efforts to utilize testicu- 

 lar extracts for therapeutic purposes and Berthold's 

 experiments on capons, in 1889, to determine the exist- 

 ence of internal secretions in the sex glands, many theo- 

 ries have been advanced to explain the individual func- 

 tions of the ductless glands. It can be realized today 

 how wide the field of activity is regarding ductless 

 gland work its therapy, physiological relation and 

 activity when the literature upon the subject is con- 

 sulted. Within the past ten years endocrinology has 

 taken on definite form as a real science, and is fast 

 becoming one of the most important branches of med- 



