60 GLANDS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



furore regarding the administration of glandular 

 extract unless it be the plant pharmacology of the 

 middle ages. ... A patient is bilious therefore 

 he has some disease of the liver. The leaves of a 

 certain plant resemble in their color and appear- 

 ance the surface of the liver therefore a concoc- 

 tion of these leaves is good for biliousness, and the 

 plant comes to be called hepatica. But then, lest 

 it may not really do this, we will add several other 

 things to the concoction as well. This is about the 

 basis on which the glandular extracts are admin- 

 istered to-day. And it will be noted that most of 

 them contain a certain amount of thyroid extract, 

 which possibly is the only one of these sub- 

 stances having any definite action when given by 

 mouth. , . . 



"Surely nothing will discredit the subject so 

 effectively as pseudo-scientific reports which find 

 their way from the medical press into advertising 

 leaflets, where, cleverly intermixed with abstracts 

 from researches of actual value, the administration 

 of pluriglandular compounds is promiscuously ad- 

 vocated for a multitude of symptoms, real and fic- 

 titious. The Lewis Carroll of to-day would have 

 Alice nibble from a pituitary mushroom in her left 

 hand and a lutein (a pigment obtained from a por- 

 tion of the ovary) one in her right hand and presto! 

 she is any height desired !" 



Pituitary extract and the development of chick- 



