498 PROCESSES INFERRED FROM INDIRECT OBSERVATION 



begins before adolescence the effect is to produce gigantism, while if the 

 disturbance supervenes after the attainment of maturity acromegaly 

 is the result. He regarded the two conditions as differing aspects 

 of one and the same disease, of which the symptoms were in both 

 instances attributable to hyperactivity of the hypophysis followed 

 ultimately by its destruction. Subsequent investigators, and especially 

 Gushing, have confirmed this view by more extended observation, but 

 they have also added a third type of pituitary disturbance, which is 

 designated Frohlich's disease, or Dyspituitarism. These cases may occur 

 in childhood (Fig. 37) or in adults. They are characterised by exten- 



FIG. 38. Fat undersized animal on left has undergone partial hypophysectomy. Animal 

 on the right is a normal animal of same sex and litter. (After Gushing.) 



sive deposits of subcutaneous fat, the skin is thin, transparent, and 

 hairless, and the sexual organs and functions are usually undeveloped. 

 Muscular energy is at a very low level, the intelligence is usually normal 

 but slow These cases have in some instances been markedly alleviated 

 by the administration of pituitary tissue or of pituitary and thyroid 

 tissue or extracts combined, and they apparently arise from deficient 



tivity of the hypophysis without the preliminary stimulation which is 

 esponsible tor the characteristic symptoms of gigantism or acromegal v. 



Experiments upon animals have shown us that while in mammals 

 excision of the posterior lobe or pars nervpsa of the pituitary body mav 

 be endured, complete excision of both lobes of the gland is fa.taJ, 



