4 ENDOCRINE GLANDS 



1. NORMAL AND PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY AND 

 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE ENDOCRINE GLANDS. 



WHAT ARE THE ENDOCRINE GLANDS? 



They are the glands which pour out their secretions, not 

 in extraneous places, like the cutaneous surface of the 

 gastro intestinal tract, but in the body itself, that is, in 

 the blood stream. The notion that such glands existed 

 (internal secretions), as opposed to the glands of external 

 secretion has only been reached very slowly and it has 

 nearly always been French scientists which have led 

 the way. 



The founders of the theory of internal secretions were, 

 Claude Bernard and Brown-Sequard. As has been shown 

 by Gley, they had predecessors like Legallois and Bordeu. 

 It was Claude Bernard in 1855 who discovered the glyco- 

 genic function of the liver and who in this way placed 

 the physiology of internal secretions on a firm foundation. 



In a series of investigations, between 1855 and 1867 he 

 admitted that "the secretory cell attracts, creates, elab- 

 orates in itself secretions which it pours out, either on the 

 outside on the mucous membranes or directly into the 

 blood stream. I have called those which are poured on 

 the outside external secretions and those which are poured 

 into the organism itself internal secretions. The internal 

 secretions are not as well known as the external secre- 

 tions. I believe, however, that they definitely exist 

 and we must consider the blood as the product of vascular 

 blood organs. The glycogenic liver is a large blood organ, 

 that is, a gland which has no external opening. From this 

 organ arises the various sugar products found in the 

 blood and perhaps certain albuminoid substances. There 

 are, however, other blood organs such as, the spleen, the 

 thyroid, the suprarenal capsules, the lymphatic glands, 





