HISTOKY OF ENDOCRINE DOCTRINE 



only animal extracts in our present pharmacopeia were the antispasmodics, 

 musk and castoreum, which used to be described to gaping students, re- 

 ceiving their first instruction in the action of drugs upon the human frame, 

 as derivatives of the preputial gland and follicles of the Thibetan musk 

 deer and the beaver, respectively. 



Another set of observations which bears upon our subject is that con- 

 nected with the universal interest in giants and dwarfs, the acromegalics 

 and achondroplasics of modern 

 pathology. The acromegalic 

 giants go back to the legendary 

 lore of the Nephelim in Genesis 

 (vi. 4), of Og, king of Bashan, 

 the Anakim, Goliath of Gath, 

 the Titans, Antseus, Polyphe- 

 mus, Fafner and Fasolt, Gog 

 and Magog, down to the huge 

 images of Manchuria, the in- 

 numerable reports of excava,- 

 tions of giant skeletal remains, 

 and the Irish, Chinese and Rus- 

 sian giants of more recent date. 

 The achondroplasic dwarfs sug- 

 gest the short limbed satyrs, the 

 dwarf gods of Egypt (Bes, 

 Phtah and others), 1 the black 

 pygmy races, 2 the court dwarfs 

 and buffoons figured by Velas- 

 quez and other great painters, 

 and the athletic, acrobatic, and 

 humoristic dwarfs of our vaude- 

 ville shows. 



Among the ancient Romans 

 it was customary to test the in- 

 crease in the girth of a young woman's neck, in connection with defloration 

 or pregnancy, by measurement with a thread, as indicated in the lines of 

 Catullus (Ixiv, 371-378) : 



Non illam nutrix orienti luce revisens 

 Hesterno collum poterit circumdare filo; 



but there is no evidence that they associated this cervical enlargement with 

 the thyroid gland. Endemic goiter, however, was so well known in an- 



1 For a full account of these, with many illustrations, see the Munich dissertation 

 of Franz Ballod. 



2 There are no white races of pygmies, and it is probable that most white dwarfs 

 are myxedematous or achondroplasic. 



Fig. 2. Paracelsus 

 (1493-1541) 



