Physiology and Experimental Path- 

 ology of the Hypophysis 



DEAN LEWIS 



CHICAGO 



Marie in 1886 called attention to the relation between acromegaly and 

 the hypophysis. Many of the tumors of the hypophysis in the earlier 

 cases of acromegaly were regarded as sarcomas and it was believed that 

 the symptom-complex was due to a destructive lesion of the gland. Later 

 studies have shown, however, that acromegaly is always associated with 

 hyperplasia or adenoma of the eosinophile cells of the anterior lobe of the 

 hypophysis and that the early tumors which were regarded as sarcomas 

 were really adenomas of the anterior lobe. 



The clinical and pathological investigations of acromegaly and the 

 hypophysis stimulated experimental work upon the gland, much of which 

 was at first undertaken with the view of producing some of the changes 

 which were observed clinically when the gland was diseased. These 

 studies have been carried on rather intensively for a number of years by 

 several different investigators. There are many questions relating to the 

 hypophysis which are still unsettled, conflicting evidence being found, but 

 a number of facts upon which conclusions may be based have been 

 determined. 



Results of Extirpation of the Gland Partial and Complete. Hors- 

 ley (1886) was the first to attempt extirpation of the hypophysis, in 

 order to compare the effects of removal of this gland with those of the 

 removal of the thyroid. His work, like that of Dastro (1889) and Gley 

 (1891), was not at all satisfactory for practically all of the animals died 

 shortly after the operation. Marie and Marinesco regarded acromegaly 

 as due to lessened function of the hypophysis and Marinesco attempted 

 in 1892 to reproduce the symptom-complex experimentally. He operated 

 upon a number of different animals in different ways, but his results were 

 not at all conclusive because it was difficult to determine in many of these 

 early studies whether the symptoms were due entirely to removal of the 



1 Marie P Sur deux cas d'acromegalie, hypertrophie singuliere non congenitale 



des extremites superieure inferieures et cephaliques Rev. de Med., 1886, p. 298. 



721 



