PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY OF THE HYPOPHYSIS 271 



experimentally with certainty. The attempt to feed growing animals 

 with hypophysis substance seems to me not to have furnished convincing 

 results as yet. Worthy of note in this regard are the statements of Exner 

 that implantation of several hypophyses hastened the growth of young rats. 



The investigations with injection of pituitary extracts have indeed led 

 to recognition that the latter possess not inappreciable physiological actions, 

 but, nevertheless, we have not been able to bring them into relation with 

 the pathogenesis of acromegaly with such certainty as is the case in analo- 

 gous experiments in Basedow's disease. It is to be regarded as established, 

 however, that the physiological actions of the extracts from the anterior 

 lobe are quite other than those of extracts of the pars intermedia and pos- 

 terior lobe. Let us first consider the action of the latter. 



The extract from the pars intermedia and posterior lobe, that has been 

 made entirely free of albumin, has in many respects actions similar to 

 adrenalin, without however giving the color reactions of adrenalin. The 

 extract from the entire hypophysis acts as a blood-pressure-raising agent 

 and a pulse-slowing agent by contraction of the peripheral vessels (Oliver 

 and Schafer) . Howell later- found that this action is due solely to the ex- 

 tract of the infundibular part. The initial lowering of blood-pressure that is 

 sometimes observed, may be referred to the admixture with other substances, 

 perhaps with those which are identical with what are found in large amounts 

 in the glandular extract. These can be separated from the other by ex- 

 traction with alcohol. The blood-raising action of pituitrinum infundibulare 

 distinguishes from that of adrenalin in that it often remains absent on short 

 spaced repetition of the injections. The vasoconstrictor action can, in rrian, 

 be very readily shown. After subcutaneous injection of i to 2 cc. we mostly 

 find a distinctly pronounced local ischemia that often lasts longer than an 

 hour. Subcutaneous injection of so small an amount raises the blood-pres- 

 sure, in man, for a long time after the injection. Also it produces mydriasis 

 of the isolated ball of a frog's eye. Further it acts as a strong diuretic (Mag- 

 nus and Schafer) by a dilatation of the renal vessels (Haliburton) ; according to 

 Pal only the peripheral section of the renal artery dilates, while the proximal 

 part contracts. The different vascular distributions behave especially 

 diversely to the action of the drug. The diuresis may be, in man, very con- 

 siderable; in case Ta, Observation XXVII, we saw an increase in the amount 

 of twenty-four-hour urine from 800 cc. to 1200 cc. According to Kepinow 

 pituitrinum infundibulare sensitizes the points of attack of adrenalin. The 

 actions of pituitrinum infundibulare thus far detailed have, with the exception 

 )f the slowing of the pulse, all adjusted to the irritation of the sympathetic 

 icrves. It also acts, however, on certain organs supplied by autonomous 

 nerves in the sense of a stimulation through the autonomous nerves. While 

 according to Frankl-Hochwart and Frohlich the autonomous vagal cardiac, the 

 nerves of the pancreas, the chorda tympani, and the nervi erigentes are not 



