864 HAKVEY G. BECK 



development of fat in conjunction with disease or enlargement of the 

 pituitary body. 



The h/pophyseal origin of obesity was not generally accepted until 

 Cushing(fr) and Aschner(a) by their experimental investigations success- 

 fully demonstrated that obesity as well as genital hypoplasia develops in 

 hypophysectomized animals. 



Experimental Research 



Victor Horsley as early as 1885 attempted the experimental removal 

 of the pituitary gland in animals. His experiments were followed by 

 Dastre '89. Gley '91, Marinesco '92,. Vassale and Secchi '94. The results 

 of these experiments on the whole were unsatisfactory, most of the ani- 

 mals dying immediately after operation, and no data of any clinical 

 value were obtained. 



It appears that no further investigations along this line were made in 

 the study of the pituitary function by extirpation of the gland until Caselli 

 and Friedrnann and Mass in 1900 and Vedova in 1903 made similar ex- 

 periments, which also proved unsuccessful. These investigators employed 

 chiefly the nasal or temporal route as their method of operative procedure. 



By means of a new method known as the bitemporal, and possibly bet- 

 ter technique, Paulesco(fr) (1906), assisted by a surgical colleague, was 

 the first to succeed in hypophysectomizing animals which survived the 

 operation. 



These experimental studies were soon supplemented by the brilliant 

 researches of Harvey Gushing and his co-workers (1909 & 1910). Silber- 

 mark (1910), Biedl(fc) (1910), Asccli and Legnani (1912) also conducted 

 successful experiments and confirmed the findings of Paulesco and Gush- 

 ing, the results of which can be summarized as follows : Removal of the 

 whole gland is uniformly fatal, producing symptoms of tremor, mus- 

 cular fibrillation, diminution of pulse and respiratory rate, subnormal 

 temperature, stupor and coma (cachexia hypophysopriva acuta). Re- 

 moval of the posterior lobe does not cause death or any special symptoms. 

 Complete removal of the anterior lobe results in death to the animals. 

 Separation of the stalk causes death. Partial removal of the anterior 

 lobe causes obesity. Gushing and his collaborators made the additional 

 observation that the obesity was of the character found in the condition 

 described as dystrophia adiposogenitalis since it was associated with genital 

 atrophy ; and they further observed that in young animals persistent in- 

 fantilism occurred after partial removal of the anterior lobe. The same 

 observers also noted that the subnormal temperature, which is a symptom 

 in dystrophia adiposogenitalis, could be raised by an injection of an ex- 

 tract made from the pars anterior. This phenomenon they referred to as 

 the "thermic reaction." 



