PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY AND HISTOLOGY 795 



Increase in the size of the hypophysis during pregnancy is constant, 

 and has been studied m women by Erdheim and Stumme, Kohn(fc), Kolde, 

 KrausO), Siguret, Launnois and Mulon, and others. The enlargement is 

 moderate and uniform. The maximum weight reported by Erdheim and 

 Stumme in their large series of cases was 1.8 grams. This increase in 

 size is the result of the appearance in the anterior lobe of a new type of 

 cell in very great numbers. These cells are large, their nuclei round or 

 oval and not deeply stained, and their cytoplasm contains granules which 

 stain very faintly with eosin. These cells are believed by Erdheim and 

 Stumme to be transformed chief cells; while Kraus(c) considers them as 

 variants of the eosinophil cells. They are commonly designated as the 

 cells of pregnancy (" Schwangerschaftszellen"). They are usually dis- 

 tributed rather uniformly throughout the anterior lobe, and among them 

 lie the diminished numbers of eosinophils and basophils. After the 

 termination of pregnancy these characteristic cells largely but not entirely 

 disappear, and the size of the hypophysis again approaches normal. 

 With each succeeding pregnancy, especially if they follow each other at 

 short intervals, the number of cells remaining is augmented. This ac- 

 counts for the greater average weight of the hypophysis in women who 

 had borne children, as observed by Simmonds(e), Erdheim and Stumme, 

 Tolken, and others. 



Similar changes in the hypophysis of lower animals during preg- 

 nancy have been recorded by Kolde, Berblinger(&), Wittek, Schoenberg 

 and Sakaguchi. Berblinger was able to produce in the hypophyses of 

 virgin rabbits and guinea pigs changes characteristic of pregnancy, by the 

 injection of extracts of the respective placenta and fetus. 



Castration of animals of both sexes induces, usually, a slight uniform 

 increase in weight and size of the hypophysis ; and, quite constantly, dis- 

 tinctive changes in its histologic structure characterized by a marked and 

 uniformly distributed increase of the eosinophil cells of the anterior lobe. 

 These changes have been observed in a large number of different species 

 of animals by Marrassini and Luciani ; in cattle by Wittek, and by Schoen- 

 berg and Sakaguchi ; in guinea pigs and rabbits by Kolde ; and in rats by 

 Schleidt. Kossle, in a series of 28 women who had previously undergone 

 oophorectomy, found that the changes in the hypophysis due to castration 

 consisted in an increase and heterotopy of eosinophils and a paucity of 

 basophils. Kon(fr) found similar alterations in the hypophysis of a man 

 who had been castrated on account of tuberculosis of the testicle. 



Hyperplasias of the hypophysis have been encountered occasionally 

 in myxedema, cretinism and after thyroidectomy. This subject has been 

 discussed in some detail in another paragraph. 



Struma Pituitaria. In this condition there is a uniform enlargement 

 of the entire anterior lobe of the hypophysis due to multiplication of its 



