BIO-ECONOMICS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS 147 



greater good of the community takes precedence. The principle 

 involved implies that no part or organism can afford to be riotously 

 indulgent in any of their ways, lest this lead to serious clashes 

 in the shape of antagonism, warfare, infection and disease. The 

 significance of internal secretions, therefore, cannot be even 

 half understood by exclusive reference to mechanical transmission 

 of chemically active products. It is the partnership and " duty " 

 aspect of the matter which is of paramount importance. 



We have to do with substances secreted by one organ 

 which can influence others at a distance : chemically and 

 without intervention of the nervous system. This, according 

 to the orthodox Physiologist, is remarkable, for he has hitherto 

 looked upon the nervous system as enjoying the monopoly in 

 co-ordination, seeing that it physically attaches organ to 

 organ. In the absence of such attachment, the Physiologist 

 finds co-ordination difficult to understand. Yet with the now 

 disclosed fact of marvellous " stimulation at a distance/' 

 " physical attachment " must retreat into the background and 

 make room for co-operation evolved and irrespective of 

 attachment. The term " internal secretions " is to some 

 extent a misnomer, inasmuch as it is apt to cause it to be over- 

 looked that the vital potencies of these body-fluids are in reality 

 derived from the plant, which alone possesses the necessary 

 synthetic powers of manufacture. Mr. Stiles probably takes it 

 for granted that the ingredients of the glands must first be in the 

 blood, and, again, that in order to be there, they must first be in 

 the food. But he does not tackle the subject of origins in this 

 connection, and, in my opinion, rather detracts from the impor- 

 tance of glandular secretions by identifying them with drugs . This 

 identification he tries to justify by saying that in either case the 

 stimulation is offered in toto, i.t., diffused by the blood over the 

 whole body. But there is a vast difference in the respective 

 applications. The drugs of the physician are something artificial 

 and may or may not reach the part they are intended for. 

 They may or they may not effect the desired changes. Though 

 they reach the affected parts, they may do such damage to others 

 as to render more difficult than ever the restoration of the 

 natural balance of secretions on which health depends. The 

 internal secretions, on the other hand, have behind them, as 

 the norm of life, the sanction of symbiotic evolution and 

 are, therefore, ideally adapted as natural media of harmonious 



