XIX 



SOME THOUGHTS ON INTERNAL SECRETION 

 BY HARRY S. NOBLE, M.D., St. Mary's, Ohio 



The Ancients evidently had a vague idea of internal 

 secretion, and many records indicate that organothe- 

 rapy was practiced by them. In case of disease of an 

 organ, an extract of the corresponding healthy organ 

 was given, taken from some of the lower animals. For 

 instance, fox lung was given in phthisis, wolf's liver in 

 jaundice, and ox eyes in ocular troubles. All knowl- 

 edge of internal secretion, however, had its origin in 

 the sexual glands. 



Berthold, of Gottingen, in 1849, removed a cock's tes- 

 ticles, and found that the developmental changes in his 

 voice, fighting spirit, comb or wattles were missing. 

 This was not the case, however, when the testicles were 

 transplanted to another part of the body. As a result 

 of this it was then believed that every organ gave to 

 the blood an internal secretion ; and that if the system 

 were deprived of this substance from one organ, an- 

 other would rise to the occasion, and furnish a substi- 

 tute. 



Brown-Sequard really fathered the practical aspects 

 of the theory of internal secretion, when in 1889, at 

 the age of 72, he appeared before the French Biological 

 Society, in Paris, and demonstrated on himself the 

 effect of the testicular extract of the dog, when in- 

 jected subcutaneously. It is said the effect was mar- 



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