Juxy 9, 1897.] 
which the names opotherapeutics, organo- 
therapeutics and histotherapeutics have al- 
ready been suggested. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that 
these promises are in large part premature. 
The one clearly successful method of treat- 
ment by animal tissues is the use of thyroid 
extracts, and the demonstration of the value 
of this method was the result of rigorous 
scientific work extending over more than a 
decade, and was obtained quite independ- 
ently of the generalization announced by 
_ Brown-Séquard. It seems perfectly certain 
that whatever else of value may come out 
of the therapeutical application of tissue ex- 
tracts must also be established by intelligent 
scientific research, on the side of experi- 
mental as well as clinical medicine, and not 
by indiscriminate and over-anxious at- 
tempts to secure immediate results. 
It is my purpose to-day to call your at- 
tention briefly to some of the important re- 
sults obtained by experimental physiology 
that tend to prove the existence of internal 
secretions in a number of glandular organs. 
The main interest to the physiologist lies, 
perhaps, in the light this work has thrown 
upon the functions of the blood-glands, or 
ductless glands, especially the thyroid, su- 
prarenals, hypophysis cerebri, thymus and 
spleen. Forty years ago the physiology of 
these bodies was not only unknown, but 
was beyond the reach of intelligent hypoth- 
eses. Within recent years facts have ac- 
cumulated, especially with regard to the 
thyroid and suprarenals, that give us a new 
standpoint from which to view their physi- 
ology—a standpoint also from which exper- 
imental investigations may be planned with 
reasonable hope of abundant success in the 
future. I shall not attempt an historical re- 
view of recent work in this subject, as this 
has been given already in numerous general 
addresses and special papers.* I desire only 
*See especially Abelous: Revue générale des Sci- 
ences, May 15, 1893. 
SCIENCE. 
39 
to emphasize what seems to be the outcome 
of the physiological work that has been 
done in the last twelve or thirteen years, 
and to explain briefly the character of the 
work now in progress. 
If we include under the term ‘thyroid 
tissue’ not only the thyroid body itself, 
but also the accessory thyroids and the 
neighboring parathyroids, it has been shown 
beyond reasonable doubt that complete re- 
moval of this tissue in man and the related 
mammals is followed, as a rule, by serious 
disturbances of nutrition that are immedi- 
ately or ultimately fatal to the animal. 
Moreover, in these cases the reintroduction 
of thyroid material into the body, whether 
this introduction be made by grafting the 
tissue, by subcutaneous or intravascular in- 
jections or by absorption from the alimen- 
tary canal, results in an amelioration or 
even entire removal of the symptoms of 
malnutrition. The physiologists recall with 
pleasure that these two fundamental facts 
were first discovered as the result of ex- 
perimental work in physiology. The ef- 
fects of complete thyroidectomy were first 
described by Schiff* in 1856, and the thera- 
peutical use of thyroid tissue arose natur- 
ally from the grafting experiments of Schifff 
in 1884 and the subsequent experiments of 
Vassale { and of Gley § upon injections of 
thyroid extracts. The brilliant results that 
have followed the use of thyroid tissue in 
man in cases of myxoedema, goitre, etc., 
are, too well known now to require more 
than a passing reference. 
Schafer: Address in Physiology ; Annual Meeting 
of the British Med. Assoc., London, 1895. 
Meltzer: On Thyroid Therapy ; New York Med. 
Jour., May 25, 1895. 
* Schiff : Untersuchungen tber die Zuckerbildung 
in der Leber, etc., Wurzburg, 1859. 
+ Schiff: Revue médicale de la Suisse romande, 
1884. 
t Vassale : Rivista sperimentale di freniatria, etc., 
Vol. XVI.; also Centralblatt f. d. Med. Wiss., 1891. 
@Gley : Comptes rendus de la Soc. de Biol., 1891. 
