16 GLANDS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Fired by the work of the English physicians 

 Gull (1872) and Ord (1878), and the German 

 Kocher (1883), Schiff, in 1884, published his cele- 

 brated paper, "On the Effects of the Removal of the 

 Thyroid Body," in one of the Swiss medical jour- 

 nals. How clearly Schiff recognized the gland to 

 be an internal secretory one may be gathered from 

 this quotation: "We may wonder if the thyroid 

 body produces in its interior a substance which it 

 delivers into the blood stream and which consti- 

 tutes a nutritive element for another organ (ner- 

 vous), or whether it acts mechanically by its ana- 

 tomical position. To decide between these two 

 alternatives, it is necessary to find a means of 

 transplanting it, by grafting it into another part 

 of the body. If, after this has been done, the acci- 

 dents resulting from its removal are avoided or re- 

 duced to a minimum, it is evident that the action 

 of the thyroid is due to its composition and not to 

 its anatomical relations ; this will prove the thyroid 

 to have a chemical function." 



The grafts Schiff tried disappeared in time, but 

 not before it was noticeable that there was an im- 

 provement in the condition of the animal. From 

 these results he concluded that "the substance of 

 the grafted organ, taken up by the blood, serves 

 to counterbalance the untoward effect of thyroi- 

 dectomony" ; clearly a case of hormonic action. 



He had another idea which, however, he did not 



