CHAPTER XVII 



THE INTERRELATIONS OF THE ORGANS OF INTERNAL 

 SECRETION 



ALTHOUGH the allusions to a relationship between the organs 

 furnishing internal secretions are so numerous, and although 

 assumptions in regard to such relationships are very common 

 in medical and surgical literature, yet it may be affirmed that 

 the theories and suggestions which have been put forward are 

 out of all proportion to the established facts and any certain 

 knowledge of the subject. 



In this chapter an attempt will be made to examine critically 

 some of the current views in connection with this part of our 

 subject, and, if possible, to separate out a portion at any rate 

 of the grain from the heap of chaff. 



The view is now so prevalent as to be almost universal 

 among clinical workers that derangement of any one of the 

 ductless glands leads to more or less evident disturbance in 

 other members of the series. The phrase " polyglandular 

 syndrome " has become a commonplace of medical literature. 

 And investigators in the fields of experimental physiology and 

 pathology have been so impressed by cases where the internal 

 secretion of one organ appears to stimulate another to activity, 

 that they have for the most part joined with the clinicians in 

 regarding the organs of internal secretion as forming a system 

 whose several functions are very intimately related to each other. 



The arguments in favour of such a relationship between the 

 ductless glands and other organs which yield internal secretions 

 are derived from very many different sources, experimental 

 and clinical. Although many of these relationships are re- 

 ferred to frequently in the literature, yet it is only within recent 

 years that an attempt has been made to collect the evidence 

 and state it in compact form. In the compilation of this 



395 



