68 THE SEX-COMPLEX 



Dystrophia It may, therefore, be presumed that interference 



genitalis. with the blood-supply to the pituitary can cause the 



condition of dystrophia adiposogenitalis. 

 Complete I, in agreement with Cushing and his fellow-workers, 



pituitary is and with Paulesco, found that removal of the whole 

 fatal. gland was uniformly fatal. Sweet and Allen 1 , however, 



assert that the pituitary gland is not essential to life. 



Removal of large portions — it is practically im- 

 possible to remove all — of the anterior lobe is usually 

 fatal ; the uncertainty of the results depends, no doubt, 

 to some extent on the quantity removed, although even 

 this may give no indication as to the result that may 

 be anticipated 2 . 



EFFECTS OF REMOVAL OF A PORTION OF THE PARS 

 ANTERIOR ON THE OVARIES AND UTERUS 



Effects of There is no doubt that the ovaries usually undergo 



movaf oTpars hypoplastic changes after partial removal of the anterior 

 anterior on lobe. No good description of the histological appear- 

 ances has hitherto been given, but Cushing 3 states 

 that the follicles disappear while the interstitial cells 

 persist. Cushing also states that the uterus undergoes 

 atrophy. I, also, found that removal of moderate or 

 large portions pf the anterior lobe generally produces 

 well-marked atrophy of the uterus — both of the muscular 

 coats and of the endometrium (fig. 30). 



With regard to the ovaries, I found that the Graafian 

 follicles — that is, the ova and the cells of the membrana 

 granulosa — degenerate and disappear, and that the 

 primordial ova lose their transparency and network 

 appearance (chromatin fibres), becoming shrunken, 

 opaque and structureless (fig. 31). Further, I found, 

 as opposed to the observations of Cushing, that the 

 interstitial cells disappear, and that the stroma becomes 

 dense and fibrous. 2 



1 Sweet, J, E., and A. R. Allen, Ann. Surg., 1913, vol, lvii, p. 485. 



a Bell, W. Blair, The Pituitary, 1919. 



3 Cushing, H., The Pituitary Body and Its Disorders, 1912. 



