ENDOCRINE THERAPEUTICS 



attention on the pathological and physiological 

 side of disease ; but in itself it promoted no new 

 departure. 



Then at St. Bartholomew's arose a new light : 

 Sir Lauder Brunton, young in enthusiasm but 

 mature in knowledge, systematized our old 

 traditional ideas and brought them into relation 

 with physiology and organic chemistry. This 

 was largely due to his work and experience in the 

 laboratories of Holland and Germany, but by his 

 own original work in Edinburgh on digitalis and 

 on the influence of the nitrites on blood- pressure 

 and on the circulation, he started a new concep- 

 tion of cardiac therapeutics. This was supple- 

 mented to an extraordinary degree by Schafer 

 and Oliver in their investigations of the action 

 of suprarenal extract on the heart and the 

 arteries. 



Thus arose the new science of endocrinology, 

 which is beginning to revolutionize medicine. 

 This is not a renaissance, but an entirely new 

 birth which opens up unthought of vistas, some 

 perhaps mirages, but others of hope that will end 

 in certainties of incalculable value to the well- 

 being of man. 



In therapeutics we must above all things keep 

 the open mind. Our knowledge of disease and 



