FOREWORD 



BY 



ARCHIBALD E. GARROD, M. D. OXON., F. R. C. P. LOND., F. R. S. 

 PHYSICIAN TO ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL, LONDON 



When Addison first described the syndrome which has ever since borne 

 his name, and proved its dependence upon destructive lesions of the adrenal 

 glands, he broke ground in a new field of medical enquiry of the extent of 

 which neither he nor his contemporaries can have formed any conception. 



The ductless glands had long been known to anatomists as structures of 

 wholly obscure functions, and only in quite recent times has any wide 

 knowledge been gained of the important parts which they play in the animal 

 economy. 



Indeed some thirty years elapsed after Addison's discovery before the next 

 step in advance was achieved by the recognition of the dependence of cretin- 

 ism and myxedema upon disease of the thyroid gland. Since then facts 

 have accumulated rapidly, yet hardly so rapidly as to keep pace with the 

 hypotheses built upon them. 



Nowadays the influences of the glands of internal secretion, in which 

 category are included other organs besides the glands which are classed as 

 ductless, hold a very prominent place in medical thought and investigation. 

 As witness the many discussions which took place in various sections of the 

 1 7th International Medical Congress, which met in London in 1913, and 

 in many informal gatherings of its members from all parts of the civilized 

 world. 



Pathological investigations have come to the aid of physiological research 

 in the elucidation of the functions of these glands in health, and of clinical 

 medicine in the study of the diseases to which they are liable, and of the 

 symptoms by which these diseases are revealed. There is indeed no de- 

 partment of physiology in which more has been learned from the experiments 

 which Nature herself has carried out. 



By the removal of individual glands, and by observation of cases in which 

 they have been destroyed by disease, we have learned what results accrue 

 from withdrawal of their influence, and have even been enabled to discrimi- 

 nate between the individual functions of the parts of such of these organs as 

 are compound structures. For it is a remarkable example of the economy of 

 Nature that in some instances two or more structures yielding internal secre- 



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