778 J. P. SIMONDS 



various fixing fluids. It is not dissolved by benzine, chloroform, ether, 

 xylol, or boiling alcohol. It is not stained by ordinary hematoxylin, eosin, 

 triacid stain, Sudan III nor Scharlach R It stains dark with iron- 

 hematoxylin. If fresh specimens are allowed to stand for 24 hours in 

 osmic acid, the pigment assumes a dark brown color, or becomes greenish- 

 black. 



Its origin is not definitely known. According to Kohn(a) the glia 

 fibrils of the neurohypophysis are the chief seat of the accumulations of the 

 pigment. He is not certain, however, that it is derived from these fibrils. 

 Tello, on the other hand, thinks that the pigment is derived from the 

 disintegrated neural elements themselves. Stumpf (a) (6) and Vogel be- 

 lieve that it comes from cells of the anterior lobes, especially from baso- 

 philic cells, that have wandered into the neurohypophysis. They assert 

 that the amount of pigment present is closely proportional to the destruc- 

 tion and disintegration of those cells that find their way into the posterior 

 lobe. Tolken, on the other hand, disputes the alleged "wandering" of cells 

 from the anterior into the posterior lobe. Epithelial cells resembling those 

 of the anterior and middle lobes are unquestionably found in the neuro- 

 hypophysis. But Tolken, by the study of serial sections, was able to show 

 they were the result of growth backward of "embryonal cells" of the inter- 

 mediate zone; and that what appeared, in single sections, to be isolated 

 cells or groups of cells, were merely parts of cell cords which had grown 

 into the posterior lobe from the pars intermedia. He found this process 

 of backward growth in 50 out of 105 hypophyses examined by him. He 

 does not, therefore, accept Stumpf s theory of the origin of the pigment. 



The significance of the pigment in the neurohypophysis is as little 

 understood as is its origin. Fischer (c) does not believe that it has any 

 pathologic significance. Dammann found it increased in amount in the 

 hypophysis from a patient with adiposis dolorosa. According to Stumpf 

 (a) it is absent in the newborn, in pregnant women and in those recently 

 delivered. Yogel found no increase in the pigment in tabes, "paralysis" 

 and cachcxia. Schmidtmann observed an increase in tuberculosis. Lewis 

 examined "several" hypophyses for pigment and found the amount so vari- 

 able that he was unable to form any opinion as to the physiologic activity 

 of the posterior lobe from the amount of pigment present. In my own 

 series I have met with the same remarkable variations in the amount of 

 pigment present and have been unable to associate its presence in excep- 

 tional quantities with any other pathologic processes or with any special 

 clinical symptoms. 



Iron-containing pigment does occasionally occur in the hypophysis, as 

 might be expected, since the gland is sometimes the seat of hemorrhage. 

 Luzzatto and Lubarsch have described the presence of pigment of hematog- 

 enous origin. 



