THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM 191 



Its pathogenesis is as indefinite as that of glycosuria. 

 Some consider it as an indication of insufficiency of the 

 posterior lobe, for the injection of extracts of the posterior 

 lobe causes a decrease in the diuresis. Others doubt the 

 pathogenesis of the pituitary. Gushing has shown that a 

 simple manipulation of the posterior lobe or the puncture 

 of this lobe in the infundibulum in animals causes poly- 

 uria. Camus and Roussy produced it in animals by irri- 

 tating the nerve tissue in the neighborhood of the pitu- 

 itary, without touching the gland itself. According 

 to these writers, there is in the region of the infundi- 

 bulum or of the tuber cinereum, a center regulating the 

 amount of water in the organism, the irritation of which 

 causes polyuria. 



It appears, therefore, as if polyuria was a sign of a 

 lesion of the pituitary or of the neighboring tissues. 



PITUITARY SYNDROMES AND TUMORS OF THE PITUITARY. 



All tumors of the pituitary do not necessarily produce 

 a pituitary syndrome. A tumor of this gland can remain 

 latent or only manifest itself by symptoms of hypertension 

 or compression. 



In the large majority of cases, the syndromes of pitu- 

 itary disease which we have just described, are associated 

 with the presence of a tumor. We have seen that acro- 

 megalia, except in a very few cases, is due to a pituitary 

 tumor. The same holds true of gigantism. Pituitary 

 infantilism, the syndrome of adiposo-genitalis, the glyco- 

 suria, the polyuria, can also be symptomatic of a tumor in 

 the region of the pituitary compressing the gland itself or 

 its infundibulum. 



For this reason, whenever one of the previously de- 

 scribed syndromes are present, a tumor of the pituitary 

 should be suspected. 



