THE PITJJHTARY GLAND 51 



to undergo hibernation." Sometimes there are 

 psychic derangements; and even epilepsy is not un- 

 common. Dr. Tucker, in summarizing 200 cases 

 of epilepsy, declares that 63 of this number showed 

 some pituitary disturbance, 28 with an inclination 

 toward the hypo- condition. He further states that* 

 feeding these patients with extracts of pituitary 

 gland had a beneficial effect, "not infrequently 

 leading to a cure." 



The dwarf and hypo-pituitarism. Of uncommon 

 interest is the inference that the dwarf is really 

 one who suffers from hypo-pituitarism. While we 

 need much more proof to clinch the matter, some 

 evidence is not wanting in this direction. The few 

 studies that have been made show such pituitaries 

 to be small and atrophied. However, as Professor 

 Cushing says : "It is not unlikely that under the 

 term ateliosi and prageria, introduced by Gilford 

 to designate continuous youth and 'premature old 

 age', examples of pituitary disease may have been 

 incorporated. Yet Herter describes a type of in- 

 fantilism which is clearly attributable to chronic 

 intestinal infection ; and Osborne and Mendel have 

 shown that feeding young rats with isolated pro- 

 teins markedly inhibits their growth, though nor- 

 mal weight is maintained. 1 There are still other 

 factors. Hence it is unwise to lay too great stress 



*See the author's chapter on Amino- Acids in his book on 

 Vitamines. 



