I 4 ENDOCRINE THERAPEUTICS 



Half a century ago therapeutic scepticism was 

 the common and fashionable state of mind, and 

 not unnaturally ; the older therapeutae were able 

 to give but a poor explanation of the faith that 

 was in them, and the materialism of that time 

 would accept nothing that could not be proved. 

 They were without imagination. As the know- 

 ledge of the blood and its cells grew, and as the 

 mechanism of the circulation began to be tested 

 by the sphygmograph and the manometer we 

 began to see the reasonableness of some of the 

 old drugs. 



For the scientific, the physiological and bio- 

 logical bases of the new therapeutics, I must refer 

 my readers to such brilliant writers as Schafer, 

 Sajous, and others whose accurate, honest, and 

 painstaking work has been most inspiring. At 

 the same time I would like to point out that the 

 general practitioner has before him a most 

 interesting field of study, one full of speculative 

 and practical idealizations. All these gland 

 extracts can be given without any risks to life, so 

 the rank and file of the profession, with the labora- 

 tory teaching of the physiologists as their guiding 

 power, can launch out on to this new sea without 

 fear of storm or shipwreck. In Stevenson's 

 hopeful words, " The conditions of conquest are 



