52 ENDOCRINE GLANDS 



Attempts have been made to get around this by surround- 

 ing the extracts with gluten, wax or keratine, without 

 however obtaining constant results. Rectal administra- 

 tion has been advocated and it seems as if macerations of 

 fresh organs (liver or pancreas) have a real activity. 

 This method, however, cannot be used for constant 

 medication. It is administered at bed time and laudanum 

 is added to it so as to prevent its expulsion. 



Subcutaneous injection was for a long time believed to 

 be impossible, because of the drawbacks resulting from 

 the administration of albuminoid materials under the skin. 

 We now know that w^e can administer under the skin, 

 without any inconvenience, certain preparations, from 

 which the lipoids have been removed and which have been 

 sterilized. The thermostable substances which they con- 

 tain, still retain a certain number of characteristics. If such 

 a method is without value in the case of the thyroid, it is 

 very useful in the administration of pituitrin or supraren- 

 alin. In certain severe anemias, the extract of bone marrow 

 seems to act very quickly and very definitely. It is, there- 

 fore, not always advisable to abstain from administering 

 endocrine products subcutaneously. The only method 

 which should be avoided is the intravenous route which 

 sometimes will cause severe accidents. In spite of this, 

 it has occasionally been recommended to administer in- 

 travenously the posterior lobe of the pituitary is hemop- 

 tysis. I believe that it is safer not to do so. 

 , Organo therapy when properly administered has given 

 remarkable results, providing it has been given regularly 

 $nd over a long enough period. Too often the diagnosis 

 of an endocrine lesion is associated with that of some 

 organic lesion which cannot be cured or modified very 

 mucji. Organo therapy, which is the treatment of func- 

 tional disturbances, can ameliorate the symptoms. It can 



