OEGANOTHEKAPY AND HOKMONOTHEKAPY 111 



report no harmful results from its use, there appears to be no objection to 

 its trial. In my own cases I have never seen any good or bad effects follow 

 its administration. 



Other Convulsive Conditions. In eclampsia the beneficial action of 

 parathyroid is claimed by Vassale (1905), who also reports that two cases 

 of epilepsy were controlled by it. Naame also reports encouraging results 

 from its use in a number of cases of epilepsy, and quite recently in this 

 country Knox has reported fairly good results in thirty cases treated by 

 the administration of dried parathyroid glands and of calcium lactate. 

 Knox's initial dose of two grains thrice daily is increased each month by 

 two grains per dose. Chorea is another disease in which the administration 

 of parathyroid has been attended with reputed benefit chiefly in the hands 

 of Italian physicians (for lit. vide Harrower (a)). There is no satisfac- 

 tory evidence that either eclampsia, epilepsy, or chorea is in any way 

 causally related to the parathyroid, nor is there any evidence that parathy- 

 roid substance possesses any pharmacodynamic powers which would be use- 

 ful in these diseases. Therefore, its use in these diseases is purely empiric 

 and its efficiency or the lack of it must be demonstrated by the observed 

 results. Certainly the clinical reports thus far are not sufficiently great 

 in number or convincing enough in character to inspire confidence in the 

 claims made. 



The Hypophysis Cerebri 



In spite of an enormous amount of investigation both clinical and ex- 

 perimental, the organotherapeutic employment of posterior pituitary prep- 

 arations has been established as a useful measure in only a relatively 

 limited field, although many enthusiasts have advocated and are advocating 

 its use in a large number of different conditions. Among those conditions 

 in which its organotherapeutic powers have been demonstrated with more 

 or less certainty, are various conditions attributed to hypofunction of this 

 portion of the gland, such as the late stages of acromegaly, pituitary obesity 

 (including well defined cases of dystrophia adiposogenitalis), 26 faulty de- 

 velopment of the sexual organs, various disorders of the menstrual func- 

 tions, and diabetes insipidus. 27 



The individual viewpoint must for the present determine whether or 

 not the favorable influence exerted by posterior pituitary medication in 



28 That dystrophia adiposogenitalis or pituitary obesity is due solely to hypofunc- 

 tion of the pars posterior is more than doubtful; many authorities (among them Blair 

 Bell (c), 1919) believing that in them dysfunction of the pars anterior also plays a 

 role, and by far the more important one. 



27 If the contentions of Camus and Roussy ( a ) and of Houssay be correct, that it is 

 trauma of the region of the third ventricle (not trauma nor injury of the pituitary) 

 which causes experimental polyuria, then the use of pituitary extract in this disease 

 must be looked on as hormonotherapy rather than as organotherapy. 



