Introduction 



R G. HOSKIXS 



COLUMBUS 



The basic idea upon which the modern endocrin doctrine is founded 

 is an old one. That each organ of the body contributes a characteristic 

 substance to the blood has been believed more or less explicitly for cen- 

 turies. A crude form of the idea is the belief, held by various primitive 

 peoples, that in each organ resides some peculiar virtue and this virtue 

 is transferred to any one who consumes the organ. Another less naive 

 aspect of the same view has long persisted as a belief that diseases of 

 one sort or another are due to deficiencies in the peculiar substances 

 derived from different organs. In accordance with this conception the 

 disease must be treated by supplying the deficient substance. This method 

 of therapy was practiced in the time of Hippocrates. It was favored by 

 Celsus and Dioscorides. Wolf's liver, for instance, was used for hepatic 

 disease, hare's brain for tumors, fox lungs for dyspnea, and ox eyes for 

 iritis. Pliny advised the use of testicular material of donkeys and stags 

 as aphrodisiacs. The system of therapeutics of which these examples form 

 the crude beginning is known as opotherapy. It is only of recent years, 

 however, that the system has had any fruitful developments, as in the 

 use of thyroid extract in cases of cretinism. The history of the gradual 

 evolution of the endocrin doctrine is treated at length in a subsequent 

 chapter. 



That every cell contributes to the common circulating medium cannot 

 be doubted. The life processes of each depend upon intricate chemical 

 reactions, the end products of which, .the metabolites so-called, are con- 

 stantly being discharged into the blood, either directly or by way of the 

 lymph stream. In addition to the metabolites, however, which are more 

 or less common to the living cells in general, certain of the body tissues 

 give off more specific products, such as the epinephrin of the suprarenal 

 glands. These substances are known as the internal secretions. The 

 term was proposed originally by Claude Bernard to designate the dex- 

 trose discharged from the liver, in contradistinction to bile, the secretion 

 proper. Such substances as dextrose, however, are not included in the 

 modern conception of the term. 



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