36 
Book  Reviews. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pliarm. 
\     January,  1S08. 
BOOK  REVIEWS. 
The  Internal  Secretions  and  the  Principles  of  Medicine. 
By  Charles  E.  de  M.  Sajous.  Volume  II.  With  25  illustrations. 
Philadelphia:  F.  A.  Davis  Company.  1907. 
This  work  is  a  contribution  of  pathological  biology  to  normal 
biology.  It  is  a  refreshing  contribution  to  the  development  of 
scientific  medicine.  By  taking  cognizance  of  the  researches  in 
botany,  zoology,  biology  and  physiology,  as  well  as  medicine, 
the  author  shows  the  efficiency  of  our  therapeutic  resources.  He 
has,  as  a  result  of  an  immense  amount  of  work,  shown  the  true 
relation  and  influence  of  medicines  on  the  cardinal  functions  of 
organs. 
In  this  volume  Dr.  Sajous  "  aims  to  replace  the  empirical  and 
hazardous  use  of  remedies  which  has  undermined  increasingly  the 
confidence  of  our  best  observers  in  them,  by  a  system  of  thera- 
peutics based  on  solidly  established  facts  which  make  it  possible  to 
trace  every  phase  of  their  action  to  its  source.  The  centers  influ- 
enced may  thus  be  used  by  the  physician  as  so  many  levers  through 
which  he  can  regulate  the  defensive  agencies  of  the  organism  and 
the  mechanisms  which  distribute  them,  precisely  as  a  general  can 
give  the  defensive  movements  of  an  army  in  the  field.  As  the 
disease-causing  substances,  toxins,  endotoxins,  toxic  wastes,  etc., 
are  also  shown  to  produce  their  effects  through  a  morbid  action 
upon  the  centers  influenced  by  our  remedies,  they  may  thus  be  met 
directly  where  they  strike  and  antagonized  before  they  can  destroy 
life." 
In  this  volume  are  considered  :  (a)  the  secretion  of  the  adrenals 
in  respiration  ;  (b)  the  adrenal  active  principle  as  the  ferment  of 
ferments  ;  (c)  the  adrenal  active  principle  as  the  dynamic  element 
of  life  and  the  granulations  of  leucocytes  as  the  living  substance; 
(d)  the  pituitary  body  as  governing  center  of  vital  functions ;  (e) 
the  leucocytes,  pituitary,  thyroid,  parathyroids  and  adrenals  as  the 
fundamental  organs  in  pathogenesis,  immunity  and  therapeutics  ;  (f) 
the  internal  secretions  in  their  relations  to  pharmacodynamics  ;  (g) 
the  internal  secretions  in  their  relations  to  pathogenesis  and  thera- 
peutics. Then  follows  a  treatment  of  poisoning  as  interpreted  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  views  advanced  in  the  present  work.  In  a 
supplement  is  given  a  list  of  the  diseases  in  which  the  adrenal  sys- 
tem and  the  nerve  centers  of  the  pituitary  body  play  a  leading  part. 
