126 
The  Pineal  Gland. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
March,  1915. 
Fourteen  days  elapsed  between  the  birth  of  young  of  the  first  pineal- 
fed  pig  and  the  first  control  pig.  In  all  cases  the  young  were  normal 
and  in  no  wise  different  from  any  other  young  pigs. 
Comment  and  Summary. 
In  the  foregoing  records  of  experiments  it  may  be  observed  that 
some  of  the  changes  generally  attributed  to  deficiency  of  pineal 
secretion  may  be  produced  by  supplying  an  added  amount  of  pineal 
substance.  In  an  effort  to  reduce  to  rationality  these  identical  find- 
ings derived  from  two  opposing  sources,  the  so-called  destructive 
neoplasms  of  the  pineal  gland  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  feeding  of  the 
gland  on  the  other,  there  arise  two  possibilities :  First,  this  syndrome 
may  appear  from  disrupting  the  general  endocrinous  balance  from 
either  increasing  or  decreasing  the  amount  of  pineal  secretion  avail  - 
Fig.  3. — Effect  on  growth  of  guinea-pigs  produced  by  feeding  pineal-gland  tissue.     Control  pigs 
to  left,  test  pigs  to  right. 
able  for  the  body's  use.  These  secondary  changes  in  the  other  en- 
docrinous glands  are  now  in  the  course  of  investigation.  Second,  the 
cells  of  the  neoplasms  involving  the  pineal  gland  may  retain  some' of 
the  metabolic  and  other  functional  characteristics  of  the  normal  pineal 
cell  from  which  they  were  derived,  and  the  peculiar  body,  sexual  and 
mental  changes  in  patients  with  such  tumors  are  all  manifestations 
of  increased  rather  than  decreased  pineal  activity.  One  of  the  most 
frequently  occurring  lesions  of  the  pineal  is  the  adenoma,  and  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  at  times  cells  of  adenoma  functionate 
after  the  manner  of  the  cells  from  which  they  arise.  In  adenoma  of 
the  liver  in  cases  reported  by  Weber,13  Rolleston,14  Wheeler,15  and 
Ribbert,16  distinct  bile  secretion  by  tumor-cells  has  been  pointed  out. 
13  Weber:  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Med.  (Path.  Sec.),  1910,  in,  147. 
"Rolleston:  "Diseases  of  the  Liver,"  1905. 
15  Wheeler:  Guy's  Hosp.  Rep.,  1909,  lxiii,  225. 
16  Ribbert :  Deutsch  med.  Wchnschr.,  1909,  xxxv,  1607. 
