File:Biology; the story of living things (1937) (20357505896).jpg

Title: Biology; the story of living things
Identifier: biologystoryofli00hunt (find matches)
Year: 1937 (1930s)
Authors: Hunter, George W. (George William), 1873-1948; Walter, Herbert Eugene, b. 1867; Hunter, George W. (George William), 1902-
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Publisher: New York, Cincinnati (etc. ) American book company
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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CHEMICAL REGULATORS 303 pancreatio IslocncCs there is a deficiency of this hormone in the human body heart action slows down, the skin becomes discolored, and the vital energy is overcome by a growing, and usually fatal lassitude, symptoms characteristic of Addison's disease. Biologists and the medical pro- fession were led to this conclusion as to the effects of adrenal hormones through numerous observations and experiments. Swingle, of Princeton, recounts how cats with extirpated adrenals barely survived eight to ten days. During this time their temperature fell six to seven degrees. Yet such animals, at the brink of death, were saved and restored to ap- parent health within seventy hours by the subcutaneous injection of beef cortin. Cortin appears to have an- other property, namely, to stimulate the development of the sex organs. This has been shown by a series of experi- ments on young male rats, in which the injected animals showed a much more rapid growth of the sex organs than the controls. These studies suggested that the occasional precocious sexual develop- ment of young children may be due to an over-enlargement of the adrenals through the presence of a tumor either in the cortex of the gland or in the pituitary gland which largely regulates general endocrine balances. Young girls under similar conditions develop masculine characters. More or less complete cases of the reversal of secondary sexual characteristics in women are on record, in a few of which the removal of tumors involving the adrenals has restored a normally characteristic feminine condition. The secretion of the medulla or inner portion of the adrenal gland has been known to science for some time as adrenin or epinephrine. This hormone was first isolated by Takamine in 1901 and has since been
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The location of the ductless glands.

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