XXI 



THE FUNCTION OF THE OVARY AND ITS RE- 

 LATION TO OTHER ENDOCRINE GLANDS 



BY JAMES H. HUTTON, M.D., Chicago, 111. 



In the July (1920) number of the Yale Review, Eu- 

 gene Lyman Fisk gives as one of the conditions oper- 

 ating to shorten life, hormone deficiency. He says 

 "hormone deficiency is probably the greatest imme- 

 diate factor in limiting the life cycle. It implies a 

 lack of some substance or group of substances whose 

 function is to stabilize the tissues in a state of health." 

 He enlarges upon the possibilities of a perfect hormone 

 balance and, while some of his conclusions are avow- 

 edly whimsical, he emphasizes the importance of these 

 "substances." While it is not certain that life could 

 be greatly extended by regulating the "hormone bal- 

 ance," it is now conceded that perfect harmony among 

 endocrine glands does make for normal development. 



A marked discrepancy exists between the amount 

 of definite work accomplished on the majority of the 

 endocrine glands and that done on the ovary. The in- 

 ternal secretion of the ovary was among the earliest 

 of the hormones whose existence was recognized. 1 It 

 was also one of the earliest to be used therapeutically. 

 In spite of this fact very little is definitely known con- 

 cerning the nature of the ovarian hormone, or of the 

 portion of the ovary from which it comes. Thera- 

 peutically, some claim the corpus luteum as the only 

 useful active principle ; others prefer the whole gland ; 



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