XXV 



PRACTICAL IDEAS CONCERNING THE 

 ENDOCRINES 



BY CHAS. 0. LOWRY, M.D., Pasadena, Calif. 



The internal secretory glands have become factors 

 of greater significance and clinical importance than 

 ever before, and their study is attracting world-wide 

 attention, especially in an every-day clinical way. The 

 one-time theories concerning them now have been 

 proven to be facts, and in most instances the old- 

 fashioned empirical organotherapy has been supplanted 

 by rational and intelligent procedures. 



Endocrinology is the study of the internal secre- 

 tions of the ductless glands, their influence over bodily 

 functions and systems, and their interdependent re- 

 lations to each other. 



In studying the ductless glands, one is attracted 

 to the thyroid because of its prominence in the litera- 

 ture, and because of its having been so long under 

 the scrutiny of internists, and also because Harrower 

 has given us an easily applied clinical test of its func- 

 tions, the best and only practical test I have known. 



This test depends upon the influence of the thyroid 

 upon the pulse and temperature following standard in- 

 creasing doses of thyroid administered in a routine 

 manner for several days a record chart being accu- 

 rately kept before and after the actual period of gland 

 feeding. 



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