RECENT ADVANCES IN ENDOCRINOLOGY

Abstract

It requires no wide acquaintance with endocrinology to realize that the practical application of organotherapy has lagged far behind advances in anatomic and physiologic knowledge. Although medication with thyroid and insulin and even with epinephrine and solution of posterior pituitary has been conspicuously successful, the clinical use of more recently discovered substances, such as parathyroid extract, adrenal cortex extract, estrogenic substance and anterior pituitary-like principle from the urine of pregnancy, is restricted and sometimes disappointing. Many preparations, such as the active principle of the corpus luteum, the testicular hormones and the growth, thyrotropic and adrenotropic fractions of the hypophysis, while capable of causing predictable effects in experimental animals, have had for one reason or another limited application in the treatment of disease. If specific therapy were the sole aim of the study of glands of internal secretion, there might be some reason for discouragement on the part of practitioners.