THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM 189 



other diabetic symptoms: polyphagia, polyuria and is 

 complicated by acidoses. 



Its pathological mechanism is still very much unknown. 



1. GLANDULAR ORIGIN. There is a pituitary glyco- 

 suria, just as there is a pancreatic glycosuria or an adrenal 

 or thyroid giycosuria. The posterior lobe is the only one 

 which enters in this mechanism; the anterior lobe is in- 

 active. The question comes up whether we are dealing 

 with a hypo or hyperactivity of the gland. 



It can be interpreted as hyperfunction if we base our- 

 selves on the experimental observations of Borchardt, 

 who caused a glycosuria by injecting in rabbits, extracts 

 of the posterior lobe. Does, however, this glycosuria 

 occur directly or through the intermediary of the pancreas 

 or the liver? Claude and Baudion having found that the 

 injection of the extract of the posterior lobe only brought 

 on a glycosuria in man after the ingestion of glucose, 

 believe that pituitary glycosuria is an alimentary 

 glycosuria, brought about by hepatic insufficiency. 

 H. Gushing has given a different conception of the mech- 

 anism of glycosuria. After having experimentally removed 

 an important part of the posterior lobe, he found in animals 

 at first a period of glycosuria, which is followed by a 

 second period in which the tolerance to glucose is increased 

 and obesity sets in. During the second period, the injec- 

 tion in this animal of the extract of the posterior lobe 

 causes again a decrease in the tolerance and re-appearance 

 of the glycosuria. According to Gushing, the product of 

 the secretions of the posterior lobe goes through the third 

 ventricle in the cerebro spinal fluid and from there into 

 the general circulation. Any encephalic compression, 

 resulting in a stagnation of cerebro spinal fluid, causes at 

 the same time an insufficiency of the posterior lobe. 



