68 FIELDING H. GAKRISON 



(although the gland is not essential to life) until W. E. Dandy devised a 

 viable operative approach to the gland (1915). The experimental extirpa- 

 tions of Dandy, as also those of Exner and Bose (1900-11), negative the 

 Marburg postulate of hypopinealism, while the pinealectomies of Sarteschi 

 (1910-13), Foa (1912-14), and Horrax (1916) confirm it. Feeding and 

 injection experiments by C. L. Dana and W. N. Berkeley (1913-14), and 

 later those of C. P. McCord (&) (1914-15), show that the precocity of de- 

 velopment attributed to pineal deficiency is also obtained by adding pineal 

 substance to the blood, the effect ceasing when maximum growth (short of 

 giantism) is attained. In the view of McCord (c), the pineal gland contains 

 a substance that stimulates growth and development, but dyspinealism, if 

 existent, is probably overlapped by pluriglandular involvement. Hoskins' 

 00 feeding experiments, with the different ductless glands, show that the 

 effect of any of the glands upon growth rate is variable and inconstant. 



In 1905, Joseph Halban (b) advanced the theory that an internal secre- 

 tion of the placenta may cause hyperplasia of the breasts and uterus, inde- 

 pendently of the ovaries. This action has since been confirmed for'pla- 

 cental extract in ovariotomized animals, and in the absence of the thyroids, 

 adrenals, or pancreas. The chemical hormone, if existent, has not been 

 isolated, but is identical in action with the corpus luteum (Frank). 



In 1904, J. Wiesel (a.) first described the so-called chromaphil system, 

 i.e., the tissues having a strong affinity for the chromium salts of staining 

 reagents, notably the medulla of the suprarenal glands, the paraganglia and 

 similar tissues in the sympathetic ganglia, the carotid gland, the chromaf- 

 iin body of the plexus ganglia, and the accessory body (Nebenkorper) of 

 Xuckerkandl. This system is to be distinguished from the interrenal sys- 

 tem or capsule of the adrenal body. All chromaphil tissues deriving from 

 sympathetic nerve cells produce epinephrm and distribute it to the blood 

 channels. Kpinephrin, or suprarenal extract, was first isolated by G. Oliver 

 and Sir K. S. Schiifer (/;) in 1894-95. Its varied effects upon the system, 

 such as u]M)ii the blood pressure, upon the blood supply of muscle and 

 the sugar supply of blood (W. B. Cannon) illustrate the multiplex func- 

 tions of the ductless glands. Epinephrin, the chromaifin substance, was 

 isolated by S. Frankel (189G) and investigated by O. von Fiirth (1897- 

 9S), J. J. Abel (181)8-1904), and J. Takamine (1901). In 1895, P. Star 

 first noted the persistency of the thymus in Addison's disease, the inference 

 beiiiii- that the normal involution of the gland is due to insufficiency of 

 epinephrin in the blood. Underfunction of the chromaffin system, charac- 

 terixed l.y diminished supply of epinepiirin in the blood, therefore, pro- 

 duces Addison's disease, or status thymico-lymphatieus. Overfunction, 

 with excess of epinephrin in the blood, while rare, is believed to occur in 

 c'.ntnicte.l kidney, atherosclerosis of the arterioles, and Graves' disease. 5 



I In- observation that cpinephrin hypertension is attainable only with dosages 

 v/.e the Castro-intestinal tract would seem to indicate that the assumed con- 

 dition is not compatible with life. R. G. H. 



