THE INFLUENCE OF THE DUCTLESS GLANDS UPON 

 METABOLISM INTERNAL SECRETIONS. 1 



BY E. A. SCHAFER. 



CONTENTS : Introductory, p. 937 The Thyroid Gland, p. 938 The Pituitary Body, 

 p. 945 The Suprarenal Capsules, p. 948 The Spleen, p. 959. 



CERTAIN organs of the body have a special influence upon some of the 

 metabolic processes of the body. Thus the liver fulfils important 

 special functions in connection with the metabolism of carbohydrates 

 and proteids, and of those organic compounds which contain iron ; 

 the pancreas has an obscure but absolutely essential function in con- 

 nection with carbohydrate metabolism ; and removal of a large portion 

 of the kidneys has been shown by Bradford to produce a large increase 

 in the proteid waste of the tissues. 2 It is also a matter of common 

 knowledge that removal of the ovaries or testicles may produce 

 profound modifications in the development of other organs, and in the 

 general nutrition of the body. In the case of the pancreas (and perhaps 

 in that of the kidney) it is by no means improbable that the gland 

 yields to the blood some material which influences the carbohydrate 

 (and nitrogenous) metabolism of other tissues. In the case of the 

 generative glands this is perhaps less probable : it is on the whole 

 more likely that these react upon the rest of the organism through the 

 nervous system. Numerous observations have of late been published, 

 commencing with those of Brown-Sequard, which have seemed to indicate 

 that extracts of or the expressed juices of these glands produce, when 

 injected hypodermically, beneficial effects upon the nervous and muscular 

 systems, but it is not clear that this property is not shared by other 

 organs rich in nuclein. Watery extracts or decoctions of the generative 

 glands have very much the same action, if injected into a vein, as have 

 extracts of other glands. In addition to the above instances, there are 

 certain organs of a glandular structure, but destitute of ducts, which 

 yield to the blood substances, which are in some cases at least 

 absolutely essential to the due nutrition of the body, so that the results 

 of the complete removal of these organs is inevitably fatal. These 

 substances are no doubt formed by a process of secretion, but since they 

 do not find their way to any free surface by means of a duct, but 



1 The substance of this chapter was originally given in the form of an address to the 

 British Medical Association, and was published in the British Medical Journal for August 

 10, 1895. For the purposes of this book it has been carefully edited and many additions 

 have been made to it ; references to literature have also been appended. 



2 Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1892. vol. li. These researches of Bradford have already 

 been noticed in a previous article (p. 656). See also Meyer, Arch, dc, physiol. norm, etpath., 

 Paris, 1894, p. 179. 



