40 ENDOCRINE GLANDS 



ations of a gland may occur without the intervention of 

 one of these systems. 1 



From what I have just said \ve see that the clinical study 

 of the patient allows us, by the investigation of a series of 

 symptoms, to look out for the possibility of some endocrine 

 alteration, to sometimes fix the chronology of the various 

 accidents and to reach certain therapeutic conclusions. 

 Very happily, the treatment of patients has very largely 

 benefited by these progresses in clinical investigation. 

 The conception of the part played by the sympathetic and 

 the parasympathetic, is very important and there is no 

 question but that many therapeutic effects are exerted by 

 the intermediary of this nervous system. It is, therefore, 

 to be hoped that the progress in endocrinology and the 

 study of the sympathetic, will enable us to better under- 

 stand the neuro glandular disturbances allowing us to 

 appreciate better the therapeutic indications and the most 

 efficacious method by which these can be employed. 



III. GENERAL THERAPY OF DISEASE OF THE 

 ENDOCRINES. 



In the preceding chapters I have brought out the well- 

 established action of certain glands in the etiology of 

 certain definite diseases: the thyroid in myxedema and 

 exophthalmic goitre, the pituitary in acromegalia, the 

 adrenals in Addison's disease. I have also shown, next to 

 these fairly simple examples, others more complex, in 



1 It is well to remember that the part played by the nervous system is much more 

 extensive than is at present admitted in the production of symptoms which are be- 

 lieved to be of endocrine origin. Recent experimental researches as well as anatomical 

 and clinical observations seem to show that the symptoms, believed to be due to pitui- 

 tary lesions (polyuria, adiposes, infantilism) can be produced by purely nervous lesions 

 of the floor of the third ventricle (Camus and Roussy). A case of so-called pituitary 

 infantilism, on which an autopsy was performed in front of the writer and Dr. Cathala 

 and Mouzon, showed a normal pituitary, while there was a tumor of the third ventricle. 

 It is therefore possible that endocrinology, while correct as a whole, may have to be 

 revised as to its details. 



