CHAPTER X 

 THE DISEASES OF THE SEXUAL GLANDS 



The knowledge of the internal secretion took its origin from the sexual 

 glands. Brown-Sequard injected himself with testicular extract and be- 

 lieved that thereby he could obtain a sort of rejuvenation of the organism. 

 The experiments on the sexual glands also first brought the knowledge that 

 the function of the ductless glands is in a high degree independent of the nerv- 

 ous system. Goltz transected the spinal cords of animals and observed that 

 these animals conceived, carried their young normally, gave birth, and suckled, 

 in spite of the fact that the ovaries were cut off from the higher nervous 

 centers. The later researches on transplantation of the sexual glands showed 

 this independence in still higher degree. Ribbert, and later Knauer, trans- 

 planted the ovaries under the skin in animals and observed that in such 

 animals there occurred no involution of the uterus such as would otherwise 

 tend to occur after castration. Halban showed that also in the youthful 

 incomplete organism transplanted ovaries could exercise their protective 

 influence on the development of the genital apparatus. The ovaries were 

 transplanted under the skin of new-born guinea-pigs. After one year 

 Graffian follicles and ova were present in the transplants. Uterus and 

 breasts developed normally, while in the castrated control animals breasts 

 and genitalia remained quite rudimentary. Foges and later Steinach then 

 showed that after transplantation of the testicles the secondary sexual char- 

 acters develop (although not always completely), while in the castrated 

 control animals the development of these characters suffer marked damage. 



While not until lately has experimental pathology furnished an insight 

 into the function of the sexual glands, clinical observation from the very be- 

 ginning has stirred the interest of physicians and the laity, because the in- 

 stinct of procreation affects everything that lives. The influence that the 

 loss of the sexual glands exercises on the configuration of the body and the 

 development of the secondary sexual characters has been known since antiq- 

 uity. Just those malformations that stand in especial relations with the 

 sexual glands, such as hermaphroditism, or the development of the so-called 

 contrasexual character, belong to these curiosities that since that time have 

 been exhibited in show-booths [museums]. Also the problem of heredity is 

 intimately associated with the function of the sexual glands. 



Finally this problem has always had a great significance for breeders 

 of animals. 



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