Cliemico-Functional Integration 1.'3.") 



activities. Let the performer be reallv motionles.s in every 

 part for one instant, and lie falls. 



The treatment of tetany and its relation to internal se- 

 cretions, especially to that of the thyroid, by Eduard Phleps 

 in the work now under consideration, is another excellent il- 

 lustration of how interpretation may run In accordance witli 

 this conce])tion of the animal organism. The essence of the 

 section, as touching this question, is contained in tlie fol- 

 lowing : 



"On the ground of clinical symptoms authoritative clin- 

 icians like Eulenburg, Kahler and Nothnagel explained tet- 

 anus as a disease of the entire nervous system. Later it was 

 proved that this disease was not due to primary organic 

 changes of the nervous system, but to secondary functional 

 disorders. . . . The view of those authors, who refer the 

 disease to the sim])le effect of a substance of the epithelial 

 granules acting normally and continuously on the whole 

 nervous system, finds here a further development of that old 

 theory because for them the clinical picture of a regular 

 grouping of nervous stimulus- and response-phenomena 

 arises from an impairment of the close functional relation 

 between the nervous system and the epithelial granules (Mac- 

 Callum, Chvostek jun., Biedl, Eppinger, Falta, Rudinger, 

 Jonas, et al.). In agreement with these authors we con- 

 ceive the action of the epithelio-secretive substance as that of 

 a hormone in the sense of Starling and Bayliss, which must 

 have its essential point of attack on certain reflex stations 

 of the central nervous system." ^^ 



Taking cognizance, now, of the fact that most if not all 

 the cells known to produce internal secretions arise embry- 

 onically from epithelium, as does also almost all nervous 

 tissue, we have the suggestion of a deep-seated combination 

 scheme, chemical-and-nervous, for integrating the organism. 

 The best investigated example of what is here referred to is 

 the suprarenal bodies. It is now fully established that the 



