4 GLANDS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



poured out on a surface. Sometimes they are called 

 "endocrine" glands, "endocrine" being derived from 

 two Greek words meaning "to separate within"; 

 that is to say, an "internal secretion." 1 



It is these "ductless" glands that constitute the 

 subject matter of this book ; for recent research has 

 shown us that they play an enormously important 

 part in health and disease. 



That the brain through its nervous mechanism 

 controls the various parts of the body is common 

 knowledge to-day; but that any portion of the 

 body's activity should not be directly responsible 

 to the brain for its controlling mechanism, is an 

 idea that may sound revolutionary enough. Yet 

 such is the case; and to illustrate it, a classical 

 experiment due to Bayliss and Starling, two gifted 

 English physiologists, will be described. 



An illustration. The food that we take into the 

 mouth passes through the stomach into the small 

 intestine. Here the food meets not only the intesti- 

 nal fluid, but also the fluids coming from the bile 

 on the one hand, and the pancreas! on the other. 

 The bile and the pancreatic fluid are led into the 

 small intestine by means of tubes. Now why when- 

 ever food appears in the small intestine do bile and 

 pancreatic juice also flow into it? The answer un- 

 til recently was considered a very simple one. The 



1 This definition does not take into account the conception of 

 the histologist as to what constitutes a "glandular" structure. 



